Given energy costs, a gyrating housing market and overseas competition, it appears that corporations are redefining quality of life as affordable and reasonable.
   Michael C. Rareshide, executive vice president and principal of Partners National Real Estate Group Inc., Dallas, Texas, is finding that proximity to recreational facilities and great shopping aren't No.1 on his clients' list today. Costs of living and doing business, along with energy, are on everyone's mind. Except in the rare instance where a senior manager insists on being close to a favorite locale — "upper management prejudice" — Rareshide is finding clients today seeking "reasonable" housing that is fairly close to the office to reduce commutes, and proximity to a major airport hub. By "reasonable" he is referring to housing that is affordable by income bracket.
   "Whenever I do tours with clients seeking a new location they want to see apartments and moderate housing, not just sumptuous neighborhoods only the executives can afford," he says. And when it can cost as much as $60 to fill your gas tank, Rareshide says, "a component of employees, maybe not the expensive salary guys, want to live closer to the job."
   Also, corporate clients want their employees taking as many non-stop flights as possible, which he says means locating near a major hub. "I'm seeing more interest therefore in locations that may not be in a city, but nearer to its airport."
   Don Schjeldahl, vice president and director of the Facilities Location Group at The Austin Company in Cleveland, Ohio, agrees that general manufacturers from food processing to automotives want "practical solutions for the facilities we locate. They have to operate efficiently and reliably, which means the utilities, transportation, water and supplier networks all have to fit together." Lifestyle isn't much of an issue if they're hiring workers at near the minimum range, he says. However, sectors like electronics "are a breed of their own," he warns. "These companies are looking for places that attract highly educated people."
   Bob Goforth agrees that "oceans and mountains, anything recreational, are hardly major factors, though they can come to play "when you have some strong CEO or plant manager flexing his muscles. But they're not a classic criteria that swings a deal one way or another."
   Goforth, partner of Leak & Goforth in Jacksonville, Fla., says clients "only build or relocate for profitability and livability in that order." Even so, he believes the "feel of a community," including housing, schools, proximity to colleges and universities and shopping can weigh in as a "tie-breaker."
   For DeVuono's "mind" profession clients, the ability to attract talent can outweigh other costs. But he is also finding customers requesting proximity to a major air hub. For example, a Scandinavia-based paper manufacturer recently bought a division of a company in the Philadelphia suburbs so they could have access to the airport and the ability to "cast a wide net" for employees, including overseas, he reports.