B oeing’s site search for its 1,500-worker, US$900-million 7E7 assembly plant has hit the home stretch, with Washington positioned as perhaps the place to beat.         As scheduled, Boeing on June 20 shut down submissions for 30-page proposals for the groundbreaking 7E7 Dreamliner plant, which touched off one of recent memory’s most […]

From Site Selection magazine, September 2003 WORLD REPORTS Edited by JOHN W. McCURRY Toyota Taps Thai, Aussie R&D Sites Ever-expanding Toyota Motor Corp. plans a Thailand-Australia research and development base to serve growing markets in Asia and Oceania. Both will begin operations in late 2004.         The Thailand facility will be in […]

  Dear Colleagues: Jack BrophyIAMC Chair It’s hard to believe that is has been more than a year since we launched the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC) with less than 20 paid members in an uncertain economy.         We have succeeded above and beyond our most optimistic projections and are on track […]

entral to any region’s success as an economic center is its transportation and logistics infrastructure. This used to mean having rail, highway, air and sea access – even two or three of these could support key industries. But some areas are seeking to distance themselves from competitive locations and are re-evaluating the definition of transportation […]

here is a new wave striking at the shores of company distribution and transport networks. It’s called optimization, and its permutations range from consolidated and re-purposed warehouses to entire economic zones that one logistics expert calls by such terms as “technopolis” and, yes, even “multifunctionopolis.”         Those terms were coined by Franco […]

W hen Siemens Medical Solutions needed a corporate headquarters last year for its American sales and services divisions, PECO Energy provided the location data the company sought.         The result? Siemens moved its U.S. medical headquarters to Great Valley Corporate Center in Malvern, Pa., in Chester County, bringing 3,000 jobs and US$75 […]

M edtronic first came to the Netherlands 34 years ago when the Minneapolis-based medical device company was looking for a European base. The company grew steadily there and recently opened its largest distribution center in Heerlen, in the province of Limburg.         The Netherlands, selected by the Economist Intelligence Unit in March […]

T he global business scene is full of paradoxes. Here’s one: The market’s getting bigger, and the world is getting smaller. In the semiconductor industry, this yin-yang trend plays out in its own fashion. First, the wafers are getting bigger while the chips that come from them are getting smaller. Second, the plants that make […]

S ite Selection: Your recent comments on the need to re-evaluate certain incentives programs and the impact of state-vs.-state bidding wars over projects indicate that you would favor a change in public policy toward recruitment of large companies. Can you elaborate?         Gov. Sonny Perdue: We want to earn the business, not […]

S uppose you sold and leased back your office building 15 years ago and put the cash into your business. Say you received $10 million for a 50,000-sq.-ft. (4,645-sq.-m.) facility. Since you carried out the sale-leaseback in 1988, at the beginning of the economy’s descent into the 1990 recession, you might have offset a loss […]

n April 25, 1953 Francis Crick and James Watson launched the modern era of molecular biology with their discovery of the structure of DNA. Fifty years later, on June 23, 2003, President George W. Bush spoke at the Bio 2003 Convention Center and Exhibition and said, “Our biotechnology industry is the strongest in the world […]

D alian, China; Tallinn, Estonia; Porto Alegre, Brazil. If these far-flung cities are not on your location radar screen right now, they may soon be. They are among 24 potential city winners identified in a recently released research report, Rising Urban Stars — Uncovering Future Winners from Jones Lang LaSalle and LaSalle Investment Management. The […]

“W e at Pfizer are here today with some good medicine: a shot in the arm for one of the greatest cities in the world,” Pfizer President and Chief Executive Officer Henry McKinnell said in May at a podium inside the drug-maker’s New York City headquarters.         McKinnell and Pfizer did indeed […]

Toyoda Gosei Ramps Up Czech Facility Toyoda Gosei recently began full production at its new facility in the Chomutov region of the Czech Republic. The plant represents an investment of about US$45 million and will eventually employ 700. Toyoda Gosei of Japan, the world’s third-largest manufacturer of airbags and steering wheels, has begun full-time production […]

  Dear Fellow Professional: IAMC has just completed its first year of existence and we already have more members than our most ambitious and optimistic founders thought possible in this time frame.         Moreover, we already have two incredibly successful Professional Forums under our belt and have our third Forum ready to […]

S ite Selection: Describe the scope of your responsibilities as Masco’s Director of Property Management. David Hirsch: It means I’m responsible for 44,075,436 square feet [4.1 million sq. m.] of buildings in the world. That’s 32,935,061 square feet [3.06 million sq. m.] domestic and 11,140,375 square feet [1.03 million sq. m.] non-U.S. That’s 149 manufacturing […]

S ignificant growth in Masco Corp.‘s Delta Faucet division has prompted the expansion or initiation of several projects in the past 18 months. But few have been as influenced by Mother Nature as the construction of a new, 200,000-sq.-ft. (18,600-sq.-m.) central distribution center in Jackson, Tenn. Ground broke in July 2002 at a site adjacent […]

W hen is the last time you quantified your company’s entire real estate portfolio and its performance? If you haven’t done that in the past 12 months, then more than likely you are throwing money away.         That was the conclusion of Ronald P. Zappile, one of 15 presenters at a recent […]

T he effectiveness of state enterprise zone programs, which offer tax abatements and other incentives for businesses to expand or move to economically blighted areas, remains a source of debate more than 20 years after states began creating them.         Some state programs – like the Empire Zone program in New York, […]

I t’s less than a year before 10 new countries join the European Union, as the accession votes succeed like so many dominoes falling in a line. But they are not the only places active in attracting corporations: heretofore undervalued E.U. nations and the group of nations slated to arrive next are all making a […]

T he struggling economy battered the industrial real estate market over the past year and created opportunities for companies working to re-configure their supply chains. Many companies are taking advantage of these opportunities in the hopes of stealing a march on their competitors once the economy regains its balance.         Despite a […]

T he experts agree. “Incentives will never make the wrong location right,” remarks Jay Biggins, managing director of Stadtmauer Bailkin Biggins LLC, an economic development consulting services firm based in Princeton, NJ.         “Incentives do not drive a project, but they are definitely a factor in the final decision making,” says Kathleen […]

I ndustrial activity south of the Rio Grande and north of the Great Lakes tends to rise and fall with the U.S. economy. In Mexico, border regions are beginning to benefit from optimistic manufacturers hopeful of a break in U.S. economic doldrums. Up north, regional organizations are working to alleviate traffic headaches and improve infrastructure. […]

M ore than 430 foreign firms – mostly U.S.-based companies representing service, manufacturing and retail industries and the offshore energy sectors – have set up shop in Atlantic Canada.         Whether their operations are in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island, most industry players are drawn to […]