Features

C hina — perhaps the world’s next great economic superpower — left little doubt that it is ready to dominate Site Selection’s annual international rankings of new and expanded corporate facilities.         Of the top 20 global facilities for 2000 in terms of capital investment, China placed two in the top 11, […]

O RLANDO, Fla. — Corporate real estate executives have a choice: Change in the face of the e-business revolution or risk being made extinct by it.       In a nutshell, that was the overriding theme of the 76th North American IDRC World Congress, held Nov. 4-8 in the tourism capital of the world: […]

W aves of “creative destruction” will see large numbers of managerial, professional and technical personnel put out to pasture because the technology is so good. These were only some of the conclusions to come out of the Copenhagen World Congress of the Industrial Development Research Council (IDRC), the pre-eminent corporate real estate (CRE) association, on […]

W hoever said ignorance is bliss obviously wasn’t looking to site a facility, especially not a call center. And when ignorance means missing out on 40-50 percent in labor costs savings … well it could mean blissful unemployment. But on behalf of those not knowing that Canada’s British Columbia (BC) could save their firms that […]

P anelists at a recent session on Internet-based capital sources had their work cut out for them. The speakers were part of the program at a NAIOP (National Assoc. of Industrial and Office Properties) conference in Orlando, Fla., in October. “We hope you get so comfortable using the technology that you don’t even think about […]

T he Internet is helping all of us to work faster and better, right? Well, yes and no. Development organizations have created hundreds of Web sites targeting site selectors, but are they really getting the job done any better or faster than the hundreds of brochures, CD-ROMs and videos that came before? To find out, […]

R epresentatives of 10 corporate real estate service provider companies left the International Development Research Council’s Florida World Congress in November with at least one item with which they did not arrive in Orlando. These people accepted the 2000 Site Selection/William Dorsey Service Provider Award on behalf of their organizations. This awards program, now in […]

T ACOMA, Wash. — When Mitch Davis needed a high-speed launching pad for his startup Internet company, he ditched high-priced Seattle for its blue-collar neighbor some 35 miles to the south: Tacoma. When John Gorst needed a place to set up his Internet utility company that provides Web hosting of applications for small businesses around […]

Those funding new Internet ventures–and those in corporate real estate to whom they are targeted–are wise to sit back for a while and let the dust settle. Consider the past 18 months. In mid-1998, perhaps a few dozen Internet operations were in place working on “Web-enabling” various real estate processes, having secured a round or […]

O ne of the challenges businesses face in the New Economy is adapting to changing times without losing their core values – those character qualities that define who they are. The task is no less real for Site Selection magazine as we enter our 48th year of publishing.         Launched by McKinley […]

Abstracts of major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent corporate real estate association. “Impact on the Workplace and Location: CREM Implications of the Wire-Free Economy,” Copenhagen-Malmo World Congress, Sept. 12, 2000: There’s another major technology race shaping up, much like the race for outer space in the second half of […]

W hen people think of Florida, most probably envision sandy white beaches, family-oriented theme parks and lots of retirement communities. When business people think of Florida, the hot spots of Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Orlando and Jacksonville readily come to mind.       But what about Northwest Florida — or the region locals like […]

I t’s no secret that two of the hottest corporate real estate markets in America are Chicago and Boston. What you may not know is why. After nearly a decade of record US economic expansion, why do these two diverse and yet similar metropolitan markets continue to top the charts for corporate users of industrial […]

They called it “the Building of the Month Club” at Cisco Systems ( http://www.cisco.com) , and it was exactly that. For 19 consecutive months in 1998-99, Cisco brought yet another new building online in North San Jose. By the time that flurry finished — however momentarily — Cisco had built 35 separate facilities spanning 6.3 […]

From Tallahassee to Sacramento, lawmakers in state capitals around the United States heeded business leaders? call to ?run government more like a business.? The result: lower taxes, higher revenue surpluses, more incentives for new business, a rush of ?e-government? and information technology initiatives, and greater investment in needed infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, public schools […]

It?s official, already: The glow is back on the Golden State?s business climate. That?s the scoop from the top of Site Selection?s business climate rankings for 2000. California this year moved all the way up to No. 1 from 1999?s No. 5 finish. The Golden State ranks as a perennial business location powerhouse, of course, […]

World business climates in late 2000 are, for the most part, fair. But some forces are at work that could change that in the New Year. Energy prices in Western markets, particularly the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, are exerting pressure on businesses that manufacture and transport goods. A scarcity of skilled labor is a […]

A good man is hard to find, especially in a market where unemployment rates have dropped nearly a full percentage point from last year and continue to drop by approximately one-tenth a month. For this reason, many site seekers are looking away from Europe’s usual suspects for more abundant labor pools. Although the European labor […]

When Chicago-based Navistar International Corp. needed to expand its new truck assembly operations in 1998, the company selected Monterrey suburb Escobedo in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, for the same reasons that have catapulted the Mexican economy to the forefront of Latin America. Factors like a strong work ethic, an abundant supply of highly skilled manufacturing employees, […]

We live in an age of e-commerce, fiber optics, information systems and infrastructure, and ideas and initiatives moving at the speed of light through a network of silicon and wiring. And that prompts one to ask, why do so many good ideas go bad? Could it be that we have forgotten in this gizmo-oriented age […]

A group of leading government and industry leaders known as the Industrial Rebirth Council was formed in July 2000 to expand and support Japanese economic reform initiatives. The council, which was convened by — and is chaired by — Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, is comprised of key government ministers and CEOs of such companies as […]

The Renaissance of the South is, by now, an old story. From Atlanta to Charlotte to Raleigh-Durham, the metropolitan areas of the Southeastern U.S. experienced unprecedented economic growth during the 1980s and 1990s. What may not be so well known is the economic resurgence of the Old South’s southernmost state: Florida. From Tallahassee to Jacksonville […]

Abstracts of recent major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent corporate real estate association. “Using Web-Based Technologies to Manage the Corporate Infrastructure,” New York World Congress, May 2, 2000: Peregrine Systems’ Nancy Johnson Sanquist told this jam-packed workshop session, “Infrastructure management is the mortar that connects the clicks with the […]

A recognized industry leader in providing corporate real estate (CRE) information over the Internet, IDRC has unveiled its newly designed Web site. “E-business is changing everything,” commented IDRC Marketing Committee Co-chair Dennis Boles, Haworth director of global facilities. “The new IDRC home page reflects how the association recognizes that change.” A key element of the […]