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NORTH AMERICAN REPORTS
HQs Reporting In
The total number of headquarters projects tracked by Conway Data's
New Plant Database between 1999 and 2003 comes to 2,236. Out of
that total, just 99 (or 4.4 percent) were from Fortune 500 companies.
In 2003, total HQ projects came to 176, but
15 of them (or 8.5 percent) were from the Fortune 500.
Among the most recent Fortune 500 headquarters
projects has been Charlotte-based Bank of America's 1,400-employee
move in New York City, where it plans to occupy half of the 2.1
million sq. ft. (195,090 sq. m.) in the $1-billion 52-story Bank
of America Tower. On August 2, 2004 -- the day after a major terror
alert in the area's financial district -- Bank of America, the
Durst Organization and elected officials gathered for the groundbreaking.
BOA President and CEO Kenneth D. Lewis said the tower "represents
our commitment to, and belief in, the future of New York City
... not only as the world's financial capital, but as a critical
market for companies looking to succeed in financial services
at the highest level."
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New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg, New York Gov. George Pataki and Bank
of America President and CEO Kenneth D. Lewis break ground
for BOA's billion-dollar tower.
Photo courtesy of The Durst Organization.
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Repatriation Could
Spur Reinvestment
Pending federal tax legislation -- designed to
re-jigger corporate tax rates to appease both the WTO and multinationals
-- could have a pronounced effect on corporate real estate. That's
because foreign earnings, hitherto taxed at the going rate of 35 percent,
would instead be taxed at a rate of 5.25 percent, provided the cash
is reinvested in the U.S. within 12 months of the law's enactment.
Estimates from Smith Barney project a potential
$300 billion in repatriated earnings, although a June 2004 update
on the issue from JP Morgan Chase Bank raises that sum to $425 billion
in possibly returned earnings by the end of 2004, out of a total available
pool of $510 billion -- more than half of which is held by pharmaceutical
and manufacturing companies.
An analysis of the repatriation scenario performed
for the Congressional Research Service in October 2003 found that
currency exchange rates and rate of return would offset much of the
"stimulative impact" of repatriation, as net exports would be reduced.
But the JPMorgan report cites its own survey, which indicates that
35 percent of the total repatriated amount would be spent on investment
or R&D. The report also estimates job gains of roughly 600,000 over
two years. |
Soccer and Supplements in Chi-Town?
In the Town of Cicero, Ill. -- a Chicago community with a large Hispanic
population -- Mexican nutritional product and soccer magnate Jorge
Vergara is proposing to hire 1,000 workers at a new manufacturing
and distribution center for his Omnilife Group. Or so the story goes.
The project -- which would also include a youth
sports academy at the now-closed Sportsman's Park racetrack -- would
benefit from tax increment financing (TIF). The sports facility, called
Chivas Club, would carry the same moniker as the Major League Soccer
team Vergara just purchased in Los Angeles and the Guadalajara team
he's owned since his $100-million buyout in 2002. He has interests
in major film production, having backedY Tu Mama Tambien. And his
long-simmering, $678-million, 11-building cultural complex in Guadalajara
is expected to finally break ground later this year.
Omnilife Group currently operates distribution
centers in Houston (2), Dallas, and Austin, Texas; Commerce and San
Jose, Calif.; Henderson, Nev.; and the Chicago suburb of Bensenville,
Ill. According to the Chicago Tribune, the proposed 200,000-sq.-ft.
(18,580-sq.-m.) facility would serve the U.S. and Canadian markets.
In 2001, Omnilife opened a manufacturing facility near Cali, Colombia.
In July 2004, Vergara announced that Omnilife was making inroads with
its nutritional products in Russia and planned to build a plant there.
Town of Cicero President Ramiro Gonzalez hails
from the same home state as Vergara: Jalisco. Cicero newspaper El
Dia reported in July that Vergara had met with Gonzalez, and that
Vergara had confirmed plans for the complex. But repeated requests
for interviews with Gonzalez and Town of Cicero attorney Dennis Both
went unanswered. And state and Chicago economic development officials
are not involved in the project.
Omar Duque, spokesperson with the Town of Cicero,
tells Site Selection that "nothing is finalized on the project yet,
and there isn't a location." Hearings are indeed under way, however,
regarding a proposed TIF district along Cicero Ave. The town has seen
dramatic retail growth in another TIF that used to house the offices
of Western Electric, and yet another TIF on Laramie Ave. includes
the Sportsman's Park racetrack. The latter property was purchased
by the town in 2003, with developer DiMucci Companies planning at
that time to invest $150 million in a hotel, shopping, soccer and
convention complex. But, says Duque, "that is not where Omnilife is
going to go."
Like a floating corner kick, where -- and whether
-- Omnilife has a goal in mind in Cicero is still firmly up in the
air. |
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