IAMC Insider, Site Selection magazine, September 2003

At a 6-acre (0.6-hectare) facility called Solarmine, about 40 miles (64 km.) outside Bakersfield, Chevron Texaco's Chevron Energy Solutions subsidiary, in partnership with United Solar Systems Corp., has installed California's first photovoltaic facility to help power oil field operations. The 500-kw project is the largest array of flexible, amorphous-silicon solar technology in the world, with 4,800 panels.
According to ChevronTexaco, the panels can withstand direct impact and puncture without compromising their ability to generate power. As a result, the panels are candidates for commercial roofing and other large applications that require flexibility and resilience.
"This project allows ChevronTexaco the opportunity to demonstrate the viability of a new solar technology for certain commercial and industrial applications, including oil field operations," said Jim Davis, president of San Francisco-based Chevron Energy Solutions. "It also has given us valuable experience in the design and development of photovoltaic systems for the businesses and institutions we serve."
United Solar is a subsidiary of Michigan-based Energy Conversion Devices, which is 20-percent owned by ChevronTexaco. IAMC member Dennis Triplitt is manager, projects and consulting, for ChevronTexaco Business and Real Estate Services, based at corporation headquarters in San Ramon, Calif.

Wet chemical facility in Pueblo, Colo.
Opened in 1998, this 200,000-sq.-ft. wet chemical production facility in Pueblo, Colo., is part of the $300-million deal that has put the entire Electronic Chemicals business of Ashland Inc. into the portfolio of Pa.-based Air Products.
Lehigh Valley, Pa.-based Air Products has been chosen by Technip-Coflexip to build two air separation plants for Sasol and Qatar Petroleum, which will supply oxygen to the world's largest gas-to-liquids facility in Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City. The complex is due to be operational in 2005. "We have built a number of large oxygen plants for customers in the United States, the Americas, Europe, Asia, South Africa and in the Middle East," says Mark E. Modjeska, general manager, Worldwide Equipment & Manufacturing at Air Products. "Air Products will bring its full breadth of technical and operating experience in support of this project." The company has also recently acquired the electronic chemicals business of Ashland Inc., positioning itself to better serve the semiconductor industry. IAMC member Richard Leighton is the company's manager of real estate and space planning.

On June 3, Procter & Gamble selected Jones Lang LaSalle as the recipient of a five-year, $700-million corporate facilities management and project management contract. The Chicago-based service firm will have responsibility for 13.8 million sq. ft. (1.28 million sq. m.) of P&G offices and technical facilities in 60 countries, but none of the company's manufacturing space, which is managed on a piecemeal basis. The company's total global portfolio is some 95 million sq. ft. (8.8-million sq. m.). Todd Hamiter, P&G operations manager, is an IAMC member.
The agreement also covers strategic facilities planning, property management, remodeling and furnishing, and employee convenience services. What's more, nearly 600 employees from P&G's Global Business Services unit will transfer to Jones Lang LaSalle. Others from that unit are transferring to Hewlett-Packard, pursuant to a May 2003 agreement outsourcing IT infrastructure applications development, maintenance and desktop support.
The corporate real estate moves are the services-side reflection of P&G CEO A.G. Lafley's strategy to transform – some would say re-form – the insular company's culture by concentrating only on the products that P&G makes best. That has meant profound change, typified by the April 2003 transaction that outsourced to a Canadian contractor the manufacturing of all bar soap, the product on which William Procter and James Gamble founded the company in 1837.

Dana Corp. axle assembly facility, Como, Italy
Dana Corp., based in Toledo, Ohio, has opened a new agricultural axle assembly facility in Como, Italy. The 55,110-sq.-ft. (16,700-sq.-m.) plant employs 145 people.
"The new Como facility has increased capacity, while providing greater flexibility and the most advanced assembly processes available today," said Nick Cole, president of the Heavy Vehicle Technologies and Systems Group. "It has been specifically designed to complement Dana's manufacturing plants in Arco and Rovereto, Italy – as well as other Dana operations worldwide."
Operations were transferred from the company's smaller existing Como plant in less than nine months. The original plant was established for tractor manufacturing by Landini in 1949. The facility was acquired in 1995 by the Off-Highway Systems subsidiary of Dana Corp.'s Heavy Vehicle Technologies and Systems Group.
IAMC member Philip Zmuda is senior manager, real estate transactions, for Dana Corp.

Building on the non-aerospace success that Otis Elevator has brought to its diversified industrial portfolio, Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies has purchased Chubb of Britain, a security firm, for approximately $1 billion. Chubb has about 48,000 employees worldwide. Charles Veley of United Technologies is an IAMC member.

In May 2003, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. announced it would invest $361 million in the UK in order to strengthen its European manufacturing and research presence. Approximately $45.3 billion of that total investment will go toward the company's biotech facility in Liverpool, which produces the hormone replacement Humatrope.
The company is also establishing the European Center for Neuroscience at Erl Wood in southeast England, which will create jobs for at least 120 scientists over the next five years.
John Crisel, a retired active member of IAMC, was formerly with Eli Lilly and Co.

In partnership with the Urban Land Institute, First Industrial Realty analysts Johannson L. Yap and Rene M. Circ have co-authored the second edition of the Guide to Classifying Industrial Property. With the goal of providing more precise classification guidelines for corporations, developers and investors, the authors look at six broad classes of facility (warehouse distribution, manufacturing, flex, multitenant, freight forwarding and data switch), then take a closer look at location issues like zoning, transportation infrastructure, land and labor. For information on ordering, go to www.book store.uli.org, or call 1-800-321-5011.

Con-Way Central Express, a business unit of CNF Inc. subsidiary Con-Way Transportation Services, is opening a 26,000-sq.-ft. (2,415-sq.-m.) less-than-truckload service center in Ann Arbor, Mich., replacing a smaller facility opened in 2000 in Ypsilanti, Mich. The 54-door facility will triple daily freight handling capacity. CNF, based in Palo Alto, Calif., is a $4.8-billion management company of global supply chain services covering every mode of transportation.
IAMC member Robert Weaver is CNF's director of corporate real estate.

Delphi Corp., based in Troy, Mich., has consolidated four Paris facilities into one, near Charles de Gaulle Airport. Around 450 people have transferred to the new facility, which will house the company's European headquarters, purchasing, logistics, financial, sales and human resources departments, as well as some design and testing activity. By 2004, around 850 people will have transferred there, with the move of Delphi's Energy and Chassis European Division and Delphi's customer support operations. The company employs nearly 7,000 people in France at 10 plants, one technical center and three customer support centers. The company was recently awarded several long-term contracts with fast -growing PSA Peugeot Citroen.
IAMC member Robert Walker, based in Lockport, N.Y., is manager of real estate services for Delphi.