Site Selection Case Study: Pipe Products

Bob Scott

This spring, Pipe Products, a Missouri-based company, started looking for a site to locate a $4-million precast concrete products plant. The plant would employ about 30 employees and produce concrete pipes and culverts for engineering and construction firms. Pipe Products contacted a real estate agent in Plattsmouth, Nebraska, a city located on Nebraska's eastern border, inquiring about possible sites. The agent contacted Plattsmouth City Administrator John Winkler, and Winkler contacted John O'Connor, an economic development specialist with Nebraska Public Power District, the local electric supplier. A team was quickly put in place to convince Pipe Products that Plattsmouth was the best choice among three communities under consideration.

The Plattsmouth team immediately put a proposal together about a location on the southwestern edge of Plattsmouth that they believed would be the most productive and profitable site for the company. In addition to close proximity to concrete supplies, low-cost land and solid infrastructure (including water, sewer, gas, electricity, and hard-surfaced roads), the location was central to the company's customer base in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska – Plattsmouth sits very close to Interstate 29, which runs between Iowa and Nebraska. The team also identified several tax incentives available to Pipe Products if they chose Nebraska and made several visits to the company's headquarters in Kansas City.
        "We wanted to reinforce how committed we were to them and demonstrate we really wanted their business," O'Connor said.

The ability for the Plattsmouth team to put together a package that met Pipe Products' needs as well as the "bulldog approach" of the Plattsmouth team sold Bob Scott, the CEO of Pipe Products.
        "Everybody from the mayor to the economic development team went the extra mile to assist our business in every aspect of the process," Scott said. "When we needed something they were there, and they made us feel like we have been a part of their community for years."
        The company's plant is currently under construction and will be rolling out product by spring of 2003.