Features

The customer is king in today’s hotly competitive environment, and expansion-minded corporate clients across the country received royal treatment from Site Selection‘s 1999 top development groups. Those organizations parlayed customer commitment into impressive bottom-line results, attracting an average of US$461 million in capital investments and 3,002 new jobs last year. Taking care of the customer […]

Leading the world’s preeminent corporate real estate (CRE) association might seem an Olympian task. In fact, that’s how 1980 U.S. Olympic team member Andy Bessette (right) views his upcoming stint as president of the International Development Research Council (IDRC). “Team,” though, is the key word in the parallels between IDRC and the Olympics, where hammer […]

Selected from the many nominations received for this year’s Site Selection list of top development groups, here are profiles of 10 other worthy organizations from 1999: Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance, Robertsdale, Ala.: Instrumental in attracting more than 1,000 new jobs and US$37 million in capital investments to its service area of 132,000. Major investments […]

The good news: Many new French facilities offer top-drawer technology. The bad news: They’re hot, supply is short and rents are rising. With French economy’s broad-based upturn, the rush of occupiers hungry for modern space is turning into a stampede. But with a supply drought, the sudden demand upsurge is bringing Paris region prices to […]

Identify an opportunity, then seize it. Although an obvious oversimplification, that’s the formula for business success. With real estate and facilities playing a critical role in writing corporate success stories, it’s essential that site seekers keep a close eye on where new business-location opportunities are cropping up around the world. And they’re turning up in […]

Let’s face it. It’s often tough to pick the best new-facility location from today’s dizzying array of options. To do it right, you need all the help you can get. According to a recent Site Selection survey of more than 3,000 economic development organizations around the globe, that help is on the way. From enhanced […]

“We have a mantra in Dell corporate real estate: Set unrealistic expectations . . . and then exceed them,” says Kip Thompson, flashing a smile that’s both playfully devilish and dead serious. Yeah, right, you say? After all, real estate by nature is a long-term process: 24 months to build a facility, 16-18 months if […]

Imagine having the technological resources to run highly effective corporate real estate-related meetings around the country-or world-in a single day without leaving your office. Sound far-fetched? Here is a glimpse into the corporate real estate profession 10 years from now. We all know that the Internet is changing the way business is conducted in almost […]

SiteNet www.sitenet.com The Internet’s premier source of corporate real estate and economic development information ? The executive’s portal to the latest commercial real estate news and stock market indices. ? Gateway to the GeoFacts Library and all other web sites managed by Conway Data, Inc. ? Delivers over 7,250 pages to industry professionals every business […]

Abstracts of recent major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent corporate real estate association. “Technology and the Future Workplace,” IDRC Tennessee World Congress, Oct. 18-19, 1999: Jim Keane, Steelcase vice president of corporate strategy and R&D, provided this workshop audience with an insightful look at the workplace/technology intersection. “Advances in […]

Watching Where YourMoney Goes Lowest-Cost EU Labor in Portugal, Greece, Ireland Europe’s lowest hourly labor costs are in Portugal (US$6.25), Greece ($9.83) and Ireland ($14.13), while Germany, Austria and Belgium are Europe’s highest-cost labor locations, reports Eurostat (www.europa.eu), the Statistical Office of the European Communities. Hourly rates vary as much as $20 among the 14 […]

IDRC’ s blue-ribbon powwow in Nashville spotlighted a host of workplace innovations that add competitive edge. Above all, though, space must fit strategy. “The evolution of the built environment over the next 50 years will shape the future of our society, creating new patterns of geographical distribution and human activity.” — Landscape of Change At […]

Keith Busse’s Steel Dynamics Casts Its Steelmaking Future in Indiana b y     T R A C Y     H E A T H Recovering, competitive, vibrant — these probably aren’t the first words to come to mind when you think of the North American steel industry, but that’s exactly what it has become, says […]

Buyer Beware: Expert Urges Tactical, Not Pervasive, Systems Integration b y     M A R K     A R E N D This report begins a short series on how real estate managers can implement integrated systems without purchasing and installing too much technology. Knowing the difference is a valuable asset. The recent date change […]

Cisco and Lucent’s workplace innovations have cut their European real estate costs and increased optional flexibility. But understanding cultural nuances is a major factor in making it work. Editor’s note: Communications age workplace innovations are rapidly advancing in Europe, propelled by deregulation, exploding Internet usage and the new single currency. Two leaders in European workplace […]

 MARCH 2000  SITE SELECTION  NEW FRONTIERS FOR FACILITY PLANNERS • Cover Page •  Industrial Super     Projects •  Air Transport    Rails    Highways    Water Transport •  Intermodal Systems    Fresh Water Projects    Power Generation     Projects •  Hydro Power    Oil & Gas Projects    Alternate Energy     Sources •  Developing a Global     Power Grid    Environmental     Projects    Global Comm. •  Global Venues    Urban Development    High-Rise Projects    New Urban Forms •  Rapid Transit Systems    New Towns,    Redevelopment,    Mixed-Used Projects    Project Data Base […]

Whirlpool:RE Takes ‘Integrator’ Role b y     J A C K     L Y N E Consistent, quantifiable processes and savvy outsourcing are two of the keys in the dawning rise of Whirlpool’s Corporate Real Estate (CRE) unit into the role of “corporate integrator” — a value-adding effort that bagged a prestigious 1999 Best Practices […]

PeopleSoft’s John Igoe Keeps People in The High-tech Real Estate Management Equation John F. Igoe knows a thing or two about managing real estate assets in the high-tech arena. As vice president, facilities and real estate, at Pleasanton, Calif.-based PeopleSoft Corp. (www.peoplesoft.com), he manages a portfolio of 1.8 million sq. ft. (167,000 sq. m.) in […]

A team of corporate real estate executives, leading academics and service providers met regularly through late 1998 and much of 1999 to craft a new portfolio management model that recognizes corporate real estate as a strategic organizational asset. What exactly is portfolio management in the corporate real estate context? Unless the concept is given some […]

The role of business combinations, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances in restructuring industries and companies was a — if not the – business trend story of the 1990s. Since 1990, the worldwide value of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions has increased over six times to US$3.4 trillion in 1999, according to Securities […]

Separated by a statistical nose, Michigan nipped California, as 1999’s record-breaking business expansion clip again demonstrated who went where for maximum site selection value. Ali vs. Frazier. Affirmed vs. Alydar. Borg vs. Conners. Those kinds of classic confrontations sprang to mind as 1999’s feverish Site Selection Governor’s Cup race wound down. Just like last year, […]

1999 Proportional PerspectivesMichigan, Kentucky Bag No. 1s, but Shakeups Reshuffle Top 10s Albert Einstein, Time‘s “Man of the Century,” knew a thing or two about proportional perspectives. “When you are courting a nice girl,” he observed, “an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second seems like an hour. […]

Y2OK: SSI Projects Bullish 20 Percent Expansion b y     J A C K     L Y N E We have survived Y2K, the millennial-turning Chicken Little equivalent of Comet Kahoutek’s similarly fizzling hysteria in the 1970s. So, since there’s going to be a future, what does it hold in 2000 for corporate expansion? 2000 […]

1999’s U.S. Location Leviathans b y     J A C K     L Y N E The very big U.S. business expansion equaled very big facilities: That’s the nutshell tale of the 20 largest corporate facility deals announced in the United States in 1999, as the nation edged toward its longest sustained economic expansion. 1999’s […]