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 top 20 U.S. deals, in fact, on average involved a $576 million capital investment, creating 3,621 new jobs and 1.3 million sq. ft. (117,000 sq. m.) of new corporate space.
One of 1999’s big boppers in corporate building was Eli Lilly, which has a $1 billion, 7,500-job expansion under way in Indianapolis. Tying that large location medicine as 1999’s No. 1 capital investment was Safe Mississippi Pole LLC’s $1 billion facility in Iuka, Miss. (And, underscoring 1999’s resonant U.S. upbeat, Safe Mississippi Pole is a brand-new company.)
Sabre Group’s huge new 9,000-employee headquarter complex in Southlake, Texas, was 1999’s top new job generator, while the year’s biggest new space creator unfolded in Los Angeles, at the 2.8 million-sq.-ft. (260.1-sq.-m.) North Hollywood Studio Complex.
High Tech, Hot Cars
Eager to capitalize on the U.S. market’s record-setting sales, auto sector players in particular shelled out big bucks during 1999, accounting for nine of ’99’s 20 biggest capital investments. High-tech concerns, by comparison, bagged only three of the year’s 20 biggest investments.
But the list of 1999’s top job generators likely tilts more toward the U.S. economy’s fast-evolving future. High-tech firms accounted for nine of the year’s top 20 job-creating deals.
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