Name: James Harbaugh

Title & Organization: Senior Director,
Corporate Real Estate, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, N.J.

Portfolio & Operations:
      Global square footage amounts to approximately 18 million (1.67 million sq. m.), across 258 sites in 53 countries and 13 U.S. states that employ approximately 30,000. Approximately 75 percent of the square footage is owned, and approximately 75 of the sites are leased. What does your company manufacture?
      3Pharmaceutical products. Our mission is to extend and enhance human life by providing the highest-quality biopharmaceutical products. To whom do you report?
      I report to the Vice President of Facilities, Global Real Estate and Engineering Services, part of the Technical Operations and Services organization. How many years have you worked in the profession?
      34 years ... but I started young! Where and what did you study?
      I have a BA in Economics from Ursinus College, in Collegeville, Pa., and an MBA from Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Pa. Describe the most important transaction or project for which you were responsible.
      I led the global site selection and negotiation team for our Devens, Mass., biologics manufacturing facility. It was a multi-disciplined team of internal and external resources which resulted in the siting of the plant at a BRAC site – Fort Devens, Mass. The initial phase committed $650 million and 350 employees. The plant is nearing mechanical completion this year. It was a dynamic and exciting project which spanned over a year of dedicated work from the team. [See "North American Reports" in the September 2006 issue of Site Selection, at www.siteselection.com.] What is the biggest professional challenge you face on a regular basis?
      Managing expectations in the face of an exponential growth of responsibilities. Change demands an even closer connection to the business, but projects pull you away from strategy and try to bury you in details … You can't let it happen! How is the role of manager of real estate evolving?
      It's not really about the deal anymore. The deal is a commodity that can be managed by our external partners. Real estate management is about a comprehensive connection to the business and a partnership which invests in the path of the company's strategic plan. It's about our behaviors, our ability to collaborate, innovate and drive performance in teams. Describe how environmental sustainability goals are influencing the nature of your job.
      These factors are more impactful on my colleagues in our Facilities and Environmental Heath and Safety organizations. We partner with those groups in almost everything we do. BMS has a wonderful and longstanding sustainability program that works to drive down our global environmental impact in everything we do.
      I continue to be impressed with BMS's commitment to the environment and the active role which those considerations play in our corporate life. Go to www.BMS.com and click on our "GO GREEN" Sustainability Report. What is the value of IAMC membership to you?
      IAMC provides a vehicle for knowledge sharing and fellowship. Both are important to me, personally and professionally. The clear focus of the organization, and its members, to improve the profession makes it invaluable to all who take the time to participate. AMC member company Ball Corp., based in Broomfield, Colo., announced in September that it had signed an agreement to purchase four plants from fellow IAMC member company Anheuser-Busch InBev's U.S. metal packaging subsidiary Metal Container Corp. (MCC) for $577 million. The facilities being acquired are beverage can manufacturing plants in Rome, Ga.; Columbus, Ohio; and Ft. Atkinson, Wis., and a beverage can end manufacturing plant in Gainesville, Fla. The facilities employ approximately 635 people, all of whom will be offered employment per the agreement.
      "This acquisition fits well with our strategy to grow our worldwide beverage can business," said R. David Hoover, chairman, president and CEO of Ball Corp. "These are well-maintained, high-volume manufacturing assets that are run by very skilled, experienced can and end makers."
      The plants produce annually about 10 billion aluminum cans and 10 billion easy-open can ends. More than two-thirds of the cans are produced for leading soft drink companies and the rest for Anheuser-Busch InBev, which said there were no plans to sell MCC's remaining seven metal beverage can and lid manufacturing plants. The company's CEO, Carlos Brito, described the sale as "another step in our de-leveraging program, allowing us to rationalize capital while retaining those facilities that remain most relevant to our beer business."
      The transaction is expected to close at the end of 2009 or early in the first quarter of 2010, subject to regulatory approval. ut that's a very good thing, as far as IAMC member firm Ecolab Inc. is concerned. The Minnesota-based specialist in cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection control products and services has renewed a 177,820-sq.-ft. (16,520-sq.-m.) lease in a 408,394-sq.-ft. (37,940-sq.-m.) facility in Southfield Business Park along I-80 in Joliet, Ill., part of the Will County logistics nexus that has blossomed over the past several years.
      The facility is owned and operated by IAMC member organization Liberty Property Trust. While the terms of the lease are not available, a release from listing broker Op2mize, LLC, said the asking price for the building is $2.95 per sq. ft. net.
      Ecolab has been a tenant in the facility since 2004 and has a primary manufacturing facility located nearby. "We have structured their lease with a great deal of flexibility, which provides Ecolab with the operating variability they need," said Don Schoenheider, vice president and city manager for Liberty Property Trust for the Chicago region.
      According to Op2mize, the property remains 70-percent occupied with a single unit of 124,552 sq. ft. (11,57 sq. m.) available, although "Ecolab is already using some of that space on a short-term basis and has rights to subsequently expand into this area on a more permanent basis." n September, for the second time in two years, IAMC member firm Boeing Co. bought a North Charleston, S.C., facility that is involved in the oft-delayed 787 Dreamliner project. The $1-billion purchase from Dallas-based Vought Aircraft Industries, which is owned by Carlyle Group, includes the forgiving of $422 million in cash advances that Boeing had paid to Vought. Announced September 7, the acquisition closed on September 30. Boeing in March 2008 had bought out Vought's share of the Global Aeronautica fuselage subassembly facility located next door.
      Separately, Boeing entered into new agreements with Vought for work packages on the 737, 777 and 787, and continues working with the supplier on other aircraft programs. That continuing work is helping Vought toward a $12.9-million, 100-job expansion of its facility in Stuart, Fla., two years after a 55-job expansion there, thanks in part to state incentives facilitated by The Business Development Board of Martin County.
      The newly purchased manufacturing plant in South Carolina assembles the 787's composite aft fuselage, and will be known as Boeing Charleston.
      "Integrating this facility and its talented employees into Boeing will strengthen the 787 program by enabling us to accelerate productivity and efficiency improvements as we move toward production ramp-up," said Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "In addition, it will bolster our capability to develop and produce large composite structures that will contribute to the advancement of this critical technology." he U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and IAMC member firm BASF in early June signed a world-wide licensing agreement to mass produce and market Argonne's patented composite cathode materials to manufacturers of advanced lithium-ion batteries. Argonne's lithium-ion work has long been supported by the DOE's Vehicle Technologies Program. BASF's part of the deal was contingent on winning a DOE grant under Recovery Act – Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative. Now that facility will indeed be built in Elyria, Ohio, as the awarding of that program's family of grants in early August included $24.6 million for the BASF Catalysts project.
      The facility will be North America's largest cathode material production facility, and will carry out some of the application development work BASF continues to conduct in its current facility in Beachwood, Ohio. "Partnerships like this are exactly the type of public-private investment commitment that will create a more sustainable environment, help move the economy forward and create new jobs," said Joseph Breunig, BASF president of market and business development.
      "The transfer of Argonne-developed battery technology to BASF provides a stellar example of why DOE invests taxpayer dollars into scientific research and development," said Argonne Director Eric Isaacs.