Stephen Barker, president, Boeing Realty Corp.

In the forth coming Urban Land Institute book "The Inside Track to Careers in Real Estate," authors Stan Ross and James Carberry interview, among others, Stephen Barker, president of Boeing Realty Corp., which employs IAMC member Jeff Adelson. Among Barker’s observations is the fact that half of his 65 staff members are primarily concerned with redevelopment of Boeing’s surplus properties. The newest example is the sale of a 50-acre (20-hectare) parcel in Seal Beach, Calif., in Orange County, where Boeing still retains adjacent operations. The sold property will be further developed by Overton Moore Properties into the master-planned Pacific Gateway Business Center.

Among Barker’s other observations in the book:

• "All the service providers talk about their resources, their ‘tool boxes,’ but it usually comes down to the people assigned to work on your account. We’d like to see more breadth of experience in those people."
• "To truly tap into the billions of dollars of property held by corporations, providers must deliver solutions that address the changing business environments we all operate in. One service provider that had lost out on a potential engagement with us asked what they could do differently. I recommended they hire some bright MBA candidates or recent graduates and put them through a year-long training. During that time they should rotate through transaction management, capital markets, asset management and other strategic service areas. When finished they would be ready to work in the CRE environment, and would be experienced in tapping into the resources of the provider."
• "Our business is all about aligning our real estate to meet the long-range needs of the company, in helping the company to be flexible, agile and adaptable in a fast-changing market, and to manage the real estate to improve our bottom-line performance. People buy Boeing stock for its future business, and we are part of that future."

A map of the Kansas City Southern North American rail network shows how vital the Meridian Speedway is to connecting the U.S. Southeast to the Southwest. Click here to open an enlarged pdf.

BNSF Railway Co. announced in February it had been involved in the location or expansion of 114 facilities along its network during 2005, associated with $1.3 billion in investment and the creation of 7,000 jobs. The 114 facilities included lumber yards and transload facilities in California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and Texas; paper distribution facilities in California and Kansas and a major retail distribution facility in Illinois. Other companies located along BNSF lines in 2005 include several facilities for building products, fertilizers, plastics, aggregates and ethanol. Next in line is a possible logistics park and intermodal hub on 1,000 greenfield acres in the Gardner, Kan., area, following on the company’s successful development of similar concepts in Chicago and Fort Worth. While options have been secured, no property has yet been acquired, and solicitations of interest for a developer partner were extended by BNSF in April. A feasibility study for the project is expected to be complete by mid-summer. Blaine Bilderback, director of development and acquisition, Vann Cunningham, assistant vice president, and James J. O’Neil, assistant vice president, are all IAMC members from BNSF.

BNSF is not the only IAMC member railroad company active in facility development and capacity growth. Member firm Norfolk Southern and Kansas City Southern announced on April 10 that the U.S. Surface Transportation Board had concluded its environmental review of the companies’ proposed joint venture transaction involving Kansas City Southern’s Meridian Speedway, the rail line running between Meridian, Miss., and Shreveport, La., that provides a crucial connection between the nation’s southeast and southwest regions. The line was an important relief valve for regional rail traffic impeded by the 2005 hurricanes in the Gulf. "The joint venture involves the contribution of KCS' 320-mile [km.] line between Meridian and Shreveport to the joint venture company and an NS investment of $300 million in cash, substantially all of which will be used for capital improvements to increase capacity," read a joint release from the companies. "The Meridian Speedway project is a creative approach to improving the overall fluidity of the nation's rail network, and it will help us deliver the kind of service our customers require and deserve," said Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman. Steelscape recently chose Shreveport for a major investment, and Meridian was a finalist site for the recently announced Kia plant that chose West Point, Ga. Van Baker, assistant vice president of real estate for Norfolk Southern, is an IAMC member.

Higher prices and demand from the aerospace and vehicle manufacturing sectors drove IAMC member company Alcoa’s first-quarter earnings to $608 million, more than double what it made a year ago. Cost reduction through facility deployment has been a key factor, with the closing of a Maryland smelter and the coming construction of a new smelter in Trinidad, as well as consideration of a second smelter in Iceland. Meanwhile, in one move to meet growing Asian demand, the company has announced a 70-percent stake in a brazing sheet facility in Kunshan City, China, near Shanghai, which will receive a total investment of more than $95 million and serve the automotive market. Alcoa operates similar brazing facilities in Lancaster, Pa., and Kofem, Hungary. Jim Winter, manager of corporate real estate for Alcoa, is an IAMC member, as is Steve Kaufman, manager of global real estate.. .

Johnson & Johnson contact lens maker Vistakon already employs 500 at its facilities in the Shannon region's National Technological Park in Limerick. A $124-million expansion will add another 120 jobs over the next two years.

With the assistance of IDA Ireland, Vistakon, a subsidiary of IAMC member company Johnson & Johnson, announced in March it would invest more than $120 million in its contact lens manufacturing facility at National Technological Park in Limerick, Ireland. The maker of ACUVUE lenses will create 124 new jobs over the next two years with the project, located in the Shannon region of western Ireland. Vistakon Ireland, which already employs 500, is one of seven Johnson & Johnson companies operating in Ireland, employing a total of 2,000 people. Mert Livingstone, vice president of global site operations for Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D, is an IAMC member.

Coors facility Elkton, Va.

In January, IAMC member firm Coors Brewing Co. announced it would invest an additional $24 million at its Elkton, Va., complex, bringing the company’s total investment since its initial brewery announcement there in August 2004 to more than $200 million. IAMC member organization the Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Rockingham County to assist the company with its decision. Governor Warner approved a $250,000 performance-based grant from the Virginia Investment Partnership program, an incentive available to existing Virginia companies. Neil Jaquet, director of water resources and real estate, and LuAnn Garcia, real estate specialist, are both IAMC members from Coors Brewing Co. Rick Richardson, director of communications and promotions for VEDP, is also an IAMC member.

ProLogis, whose new Denver headquarters is featured in the May 2006 issue of Site Selection, is still mounting its ProLogis logo on developments worldwide:

• A $100-million, 1.9-million-sq.-ft. (176,510-sq.-m.), five-building complex is being constructed near Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, France. "This site will offer important strategic advantages both for ProLogis and our growing base of customers in northern France," said Ranald Hahn, managing director for southern Europe. "The area around Charles de Gaulle Airport is currently experiencing significant public investment, with construction of a new mega terminal under way and a light-rail system and science park planned for the future." Construction of the first three buildings is expected to begin in the first half of 2007.

ProLogis is making its first forays into Romania, where a six-building, 1.7-million-sq.-ft. (157,930-sq.-m.) industrial distribution complex will be constructed west of Bucharest on the A1 motorway. "Over the past several years, the central and eastern regions of Europe have emerged as strategically important areas for industrial distribution," said Walt Rakowich, president and COO of ProLogis. "Our company has been successful in anticipating this trend, and now has market-leading positions in Poland and Hungary as well as one of the largest industrial platforms in the Czech Republic. We’re pleased now to be entering Romania, where we see a combination of robust demand for state-of-the-art facilities and a shortage of high-quality supply."

The ProLogis project near Paris will become part of a network of ProLogis facilities across Europe that already comprises more than 72 million sq. ft. (6.7 million sq. m.) owned, operated or under development in 29 markets.

The company is also making inroads in South Korea, where its first industrial building in the country, ProLogis Park Yongin, will offer 400,000 sq. ft. (37,200 sq. m.) in Gyeonggi Province, a logistics and manufacturing hub along the "R-17 Corridor" about (60 km.) southeast of Seoul. It will feature cross-docking — uncommon in Korea, says the company — and offer easy access to main transit arteries as well as Incheon International Airport, Incheon Sea Port and Pyungtaek Sea Port. Additionally, in November 2005, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Incheon to develop industrial distribution facilities in the Incheon Free Economic Zone, an area around the Incheon airport and seaport designated for development by the Korean government.

Finally, back home in the U.S., ProLogis in December 2005 purchased a site on the south side of Chicago that formerly belonged to Union Pacific Railroad. According to a spokesman quoted in the Chicago Tribune, the company plans to develop as much as 800,000 sq. ft. (74,320 sq. m.) of warehouse space in up to seven buildings, in partnership with Urban Investment Research Corp.

ProLogis Senior Vice President Gregory Arnold, based in Cranbury, N.J., is an IAMC member.

Representatives from 10 Oklahoma communities celebrate the launch of the state’s new Site Ready industrial site certification program in February.

Just to the south of Kansas, add Oklahoma to the list of certified-site territories. The Oklahoma Dept. of Commerce (ODOC), an IAMC member organization, announced in February its Oklahoma Site-Ready Certification Program, with a list of 13 sites in 10 communities. "Site Ready, Oklahoma's statewide site certification program, will enable site selectors to readily find quality land and facilities that meet nationally established criteria in a timely fashion," said IAMC member Sandy Pratt, director of the Business Location Division within ODOC. "Sites that are certified tend to attract potential business at a much faster pace than non-certified sites and often attract a higher quality of business," said Steven Hendrickson, with the Governor's Economic Development Team and The Boeing Company. To further assist in the site selection process, ODOC's website, www.OKcommerce.gov/siteready, will offer detailed site- and community-specific information including proximity to major transportation routes, area labor force statistics, nearby community profiles, utilities, cost of living details, and business incentives for the site selector's consideration. Working with ODOC on the program are Oklahoma Gas & Electric and Public Service Co. of Oklahoma.

IAMC service provider firm Gresham, Smith and Partners, based in Nashville, added a feather to its cap in March when it was selected by Nissan North America to execute the design and engineering for its new corporate headquarters building in Franklin, Tenn. Site preparation work for the headquarters facility in Franklin was expected to begin as soon as permits were granted, possibly in June or July. Construction should take about two years, with the building expected to be completed in mid-2008. Nissan will create 1,300 jobs with the project, which was selected by Site Selection as one of the Top North American Deals of 2005. George Dillard, principal with Gresham, Smith and Partners, is an IAMC member.