T he maxim used as a headline here is worth thinking about carefully the next time you prepare to sign a service provider contract, no matter how it’s structured. The agreement you commit to will be the starting point of any number of business scenarios, and how you and your service provider relate at the […]

 “E merging Trends this year is relatively positive,” said Marshall Woodward, head or real estate operations for Lend Lease, at the Atlanta revealing of the 23rd annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2002 report. “I have to underscore the word relatively, though. The real estate industry does have its challenges here in Atlanta and across […]

Kevin Falcon  T he lack of running with scissors wide open may be even more dangerous than the alternative for British Columbia (BC), despite what mothers may warn. The gnarled mess of red tape that makes up BC’s regulatory process is seen by many as the reason for the province’s decline as a business location. […]

 L ooking for labor is usually the first job of any call center. Jeff Furst of FurstPerson, a Chicago-based call center solutions company, looks to fill that need by tailoring labor searches and finding, hiring and keeping the right people for customer contact centers. FurstPerson acts as an on-site recruiting firm and concentrates in creating […]

 W hen a company finds success, they tend to run with it. Such is the case with Xerox’s Canadian call center operations. The firm already has operations in Saint John, New Brunswick, and announced in September 2001 a new center to be located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The site will initially employ 150 full-time workers […]

Survey: Efficiency Issues Challenge Lenders’ Profitability Mortgage lenders’ profitability – already on shaky ground – is being jeopardized by inefficiency and insufficient use of technology, according to a recent survey conducted by Ernst & Young’s Real Estate Advisory Services Group. The survey was sponsored by CapitalThinking, a financial services technology firm. Ten of the largest […]

 W hen they turn their attention to the Internet, corporate real estate departments have been mainly concerned with improving communications, customer service applications and Web site development. But a Corporate Real Estate Technology Benchmaking Survey conducted in August 2001 by Ernst & Young (E&Y) and the National Association of Corporate Real Estate Executives (NACORE) suggests […]

 N ow in their third year, the Site Selection/William Dorsey Service Provider Awards are emerging as an important industry tool in the area of corporate real estate problem solving. The awards recognize excellence in client service, which ultimately means doing more than the client expected and delivering value that was not contracted for in the […]

 A textbook case of a corporate real estate service provider meeting — and exceeding — client expectations might well resemble work that the Atlanta-based Walker Companies recently completed for Continental General Tire (CGT) Co. The Walker Companies (www.walkerco.com), a provider of real estate management, location consulting and development services, is a 2001 recipient of the […]

 W hen it comes time to deliver on a pledge to go the extra mile, service providers have lots of options, depending on the assignment and the nature of the client relationship. One that rarely gets much serious consideration is to simply give the service away. After all, service providers in the business world exist […]

 A n increasingly sophisticated body of theory and practice has emerged over the past 20 years among those working to define the role of real estate in enhancing corporate business strategy. The discussion has covered many levels, from on- and off-site workplace concepts, to overall site and facility guidelines, to the planning and management of […]

 T he Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “flexible” as something that is “characterized by a ready capability to adapt to new, different, or changing requirements.” Many real estate strategists and planners consider it to be the word that best describes the concept of corporate campuses. In a discussion on campuses, it also translates into smart design, operational […]

 T he American dream came to Europe and created its teenage information technology (IT) millionaires. Up went property prices, property availability and the cost of hiring. Europe had its very own IT hot spots. Next came dot.com gloom: tech stock exchanges were on their knees, and the hot spots turned warm. But silver linings are […]

    What’s the big news in the European automotive industry? BMW, the Munich-based automaker, plans to produce 650 BMW 3-series autos each day beginning in 2005 at its newly announced US$860 million, 2,500-employee plant in Leipzig. BMW Chairman Joachim Milberg says that choosing the location “wasn’t an easy decision.”       The year-long search […]

    Eastern Europe is the main beneficiary of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe’s automotive sector, according to analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers-Plant Location International (PwC-PLI), Brussels, developer of the Global Investment Location Database (GILD). “In terms of greenfield FDI projects in the automotive sector, non-European Union (EU) countries have attracted 3.5 times more projects than EU […]

Abstracts of major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s pre-eminent corporate real estate association. “Leveraging Technologies in an Internetworked Economy,”    Seattle World Congress, May 14, 2001:         “The power of the chip has doubled about every 18 months,” said Robert J. Herbold, executive vice president and chief […]

 L ong before I ever covered corporate real estate, I had already developed a sort of “connection” with it — with some specific real estate at least. I’m thinking here of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, which loomed over my early career in the city’s financial district.         […]

 N EW YORK — Don’t be fooled by the NASDAQ. High-technology, digitally driven companies are still the crown jewel of economic development, according to a study by KPMG LLP’s Strategic Relocation and Expansion Services practice.         The survey of state and local economic development agencies revealed that an overwhelming 97 percent of […]

 C orporate real estate executives seeking a site for Asia-Pacific regional headquarters operations are taking a second look at Brisbane.         The state capital of Queensland on the East Coast of Australia, Brisbane is rapidly joining the ranks of Sydney and Melbourne as a true economic powerhouse in the Land Down Under. […]

 A n increasing number of executives in the property market across Europe are convinced high tech will reconfigure relationships in the entire real estate community, from users and providers to contractors and owners. The recession, many feel, will even accelerate the use of technology to help companies downsize, and real estate may be among the […]

        Site Selection: What is the mission of the association?         Kevin E. Johnson: We share best practices, we leverage the association’s collateral strength in numbers in working with vendors, and we lobby the government, though we haven’t had to do that as yet. There is value in numbers. […]

New Alliance to Foster Technology-Based Economic Development Communities seeking to implement technology-based economic development strategies will likely benefit from a recently announced alliance between the Milken Institute, a demographics and economic research organization based in Santa Monica, Calif., and New Economy Strategies (www.regional-strategies.com), an economic development consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. The two organizations […]

 S everal years ago, the Council for Urban Economic Development (CUED) and the American Economic Development Council (AEDC) convened a joint task force to address an issue of their membership. The two associations merged earlier this year to form the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).         At issue was the concern of […]

 S pearheaded by the meteoric rise of the Charlotte and the Research Triangle metro areas, North Carolina has climbed to the top spot of Site Selection‘s 2001 Business Climate Ranking.         Becoming the No. 1 state for doing business wasn’t easy. The Tar Heel State barely edged out last year’s winner — […]