Abstracts of recent major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent corporate real estate association. “Technology and the Future Workplace,” IDRC Tennessee World Congress, Oct. 18-19, 1999: Jim Keane, Steelcase vice president of corporate strategy and R&D, provided this workshop audience with an insightful look at the workplace/technology intersection. “Advances in […]

Watching Where YourMoney Goes Lowest-Cost EU Labor in Portugal, Greece, Ireland Europe’s lowest hourly labor costs are in Portugal (US$6.25), Greece ($9.83) and Ireland ($14.13), while Germany, Austria and Belgium are Europe’s highest-cost labor locations, reports Eurostat (www.europa.eu), the Statistical Office of the European Communities. Hourly rates vary as much as $20 among the 14 […]

Keith Busse’s Steel Dynamics Casts Its Steelmaking Future in Indiana b y     T R A C Y     H E A T H Recovering, competitive, vibrant — these probably aren’t the first words to come to mind when you think of the North American steel industry, but that’s exactly what it has become, says […]

Cisco and Lucent’s workplace innovations have cut their European real estate costs and increased optional flexibility. But understanding cultural nuances is a major factor in making it work. Editor’s note: Communications age workplace innovations are rapidly advancing in Europe, propelled by deregulation, exploding Internet usage and the new single currency. Two leaders in European workplace […]

Whirlpool:RE Takes ‘Integrator’ Role b y     J A C K     L Y N E Consistent, quantifiable processes and savvy outsourcing are two of the keys in the dawning rise of Whirlpool’s Corporate Real Estate (CRE) unit into the role of “corporate integrator” — a value-adding effort that bagged a prestigious 1999 Best Practices […]

IDRC’ s blue-ribbon powwow in Nashville spotlighted a host of workplace innovations that add competitive edge. Above all, though, space must fit strategy. “The evolution of the built environment over the next 50 years will shape the future of our society, creating new patterns of geographical distribution and human activity.” — Landscape of Change At […]

Buyer Beware: Expert Urges Tactical, Not Pervasive, Systems Integration b y     M A R K     A R E N D This report begins a short series on how real estate managers can implement integrated systems without purchasing and installing too much technology. Knowing the difference is a valuable asset. The recent date change […]

 MARCH 2000  SITE SELECTION  NEW FRONTIERS FOR FACILITY PLANNERS • Cover Page •  Industrial Super     Projects •  Air Transport    Rails    Highways    Water Transport •  Intermodal Systems    Fresh Water Projects    Power Generation     Projects •  Hydro Power    Oil & Gas Projects    Alternate Energy     Sources •  Developing a Global     Power Grid    Environmental     Projects    Global Comm. •  Global Venues    Urban Development    High-Rise Projects    New Urban Forms •  Rapid Transit Systems    New Towns,    Redevelopment,    Mixed-Used Projects    Project Data Base […]

PeopleSoft’s John Igoe Keeps People in The High-tech Real Estate Management Equation John F. Igoe knows a thing or two about managing real estate assets in the high-tech arena. As vice president, facilities and real estate, at Pleasanton, Calif.-based PeopleSoft Corp. (www.peoplesoft.com), he manages a portfolio of 1.8 million sq. ft. (167,000 sq. m.) in […]

A team of corporate real estate executives, leading academics and service providers met regularly through late 1998 and much of 1999 to craft a new portfolio management model that recognizes corporate real estate as a strategic organizational asset. What exactly is portfolio management in the corporate real estate context? Unless the concept is given some […]

The role of business combinations, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances in restructuring industries and companies was a — if not the – business trend story of the 1990s. Since 1990, the worldwide value of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions has increased over six times to US$3.4 trillion in 1999, according to Securities […]

Separated by a statistical nose, Michigan nipped California, as 1999’s record-breaking business expansion clip again demonstrated who went where for maximum site selection value. Ali vs. Frazier. Affirmed vs. Alydar. Borg vs. Conners. Those kinds of classic confrontations sprang to mind as 1999’s feverish Site Selection Governor’s Cup race wound down. Just like last year, […]

1999 Proportional PerspectivesMichigan, Kentucky Bag No. 1s, but Shakeups Reshuffle Top 10s Albert Einstein, Time‘s “Man of the Century,” knew a thing or two about proportional perspectives. “When you are courting a nice girl,” he observed, “an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second seems like an hour. […]

Y2OK: SSI Projects Bullish 20 Percent Expansion b y     J A C K     L Y N E We have survived Y2K, the millennial-turning Chicken Little equivalent of Comet Kahoutek’s similarly fizzling hysteria in the 1970s. So, since there’s going to be a future, what does it hold in 2000 for corporate expansion? 2000 […]

1999’s U.S. Location Leviathans b y     J A C K     L Y N E The very big U.S. business expansion equaled very big facilities: That’s the nutshell tale of the 20 largest corporate facility deals announced in the United States in 1999, as the nation edged toward its longest sustained economic expansion. 1999’s […]

“Last one out, turn off the lights.” A few years ago, that was the rueful joke in Detroit. Even personable Mayor Dennis Archer joshed at a mid-1990s’ blue-ribbon gathering of corporate real estate executives, “I’ve got a lot of empty lots and boarded-over storefronts that I can really get you a good price on.” But […]

Europe-Middle East Region Claims Most New Activity by Three Key Measures b y     M A R K     A R E N D New facilities sited in 1999 required larger investments, employed more people and were larger in size on average than the previous year, reveal Site Selection‘s New Plant database tallies. Talk of […]

1999: A Very Good Year for Business Expansion in Canada b y     T I M     V E N A B L E Did you know that Ontario’s Niagara region is a leading producer of fine wines? It is. And while we at Site Selection don’t know whether 1999 was a particularly good year […]

SiteNet www.sitenet.com The Internet’s premier source of corporate real estate and economic development information ? The executive’s portal to the latest commercial real estate news and stock market indices. ? Gateway to the GeoFacts Library and all other web sites managed by Conway Data, Inc. ? Delivers over 7,250 pages to industry professionals every business […]

Abstracts of recent major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world?s preeminent corporate real estate association. ?New New Strategies for Inner-City Economic Development,? Keynote Address by Michael Porter; IDRC New England World Congress, Apr. 26, 1999: ?The inner city is becoming the new hot spot,? offering location strengths, major pools of available […]

It?s official: Site Selection?s editorial and graphic excellence now extends from the printed page to its cyberspace base. The magazine recently won awards in both categories in 1999?s ?Awards for Publications Excellence? (APEX) competition. Sponsored by Springfield, Va.-based Communications Concepts, APEX?s 11th annual global competition drew a record 4,900 entries. APEX cited SS for ?excellence […]

With IDRC?s Corporate Infrastructure ResourcesSM (CIR) management concept garnering headlines in major media like The New York Times, new opportunities are opening to reinforce the association?s message to the asset management profession. Accordingly, IDRC has streamed a new video outlining membership benefits onto its newly updated Web site. In the seven-and-a-half minute video, Set Your […]

European Office Costs: Brussels a Bargain Brussels is Europe?s office bargain at US$29.62 per sq. ft. a year, while London, with comparable costs of $116.70, is the land of the big occupancy-cost spenders, according to CB Richard Ellis? (www.cbcommercial.com) recent survey. Of 17 major European cities, Rome and Vienna respectively ranked Nos. 2 and 3 […]

They?re living large in Alabama economic development circles, reveling in landing one of the year?s most coveted deals: Honda?s US$450 million, 1,500-employee plant, a 1.7-million-sq.-ft. (153,000-sq.-m.) behemoth that will rise on a 1,350-acre (540-ha.) tract in Lincoln, a small Talladega County town of some 3,600 residents 35 miles (56 km.) east of Birmingham. Undoubtedly some […]