The longer the post-pandemic turmoil in office demand continues, the more clues emerge about what separates the wheat from the chaff for this property type. The relative cost of living in an office building’s metropolitan area appears to be a significant factor. Since 2020, several secular variables have become associated with office performance. These include…
In 2022 and 2023, developers completed more than 1.5 billion square feet of U.S. industrial projects, a tally equivalent to adding all the existing industrial space in metropolitan Chicago! This was the largest expansion of the U.S. industrial supply over two years in more than half a century. And with most of the developments completing…
Employment data is always at the top of corporate site selection evaluations. Corporate leaders need to understand the level of talent and specifics regarding various types of positions and overlaps from competing companies and industries. One of the most misunderstood and misleading data points is the unemployment rate. By definition, the unemployment rate represents the…
Interesting data on office utilization from Yardi Matrix and the Census Bureau. We can see that office utilization rates are not static or universal. They vary significantly from market to market. The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) provides detail about the percentage of the working population that primarily works from home. According to the…
High-quality amenities have become increasingly important to discerning office tenants. Some can significantly impact an office building’s occupancy and get tenants to pay a premium in rent vs. competing, similar buildings. On top of most prospective tenant’s lists are: Outdoor spaces Food service Gyms Direct access to public transportation However, tenants put a further premium…
We are frequently asked by corporate leaders in various industries, “Where should we locate our next facility?” Call center saturation can greatly impact the performance and profitability of a corporation due to employee attrition, wage increases, and labor quality decline. There are constant revisions to our site selection lists based on certain markets getting saturated…
Always interesting to get the perspectives of the leaders in the user community, versus just those of site selection pros. While there are no big surprises here, the regional patterns are interesting. This will shift a bit for 2024, as some saturation will kick in. Stay tuned! 2023 Executive Survey Business Climate Rankings – Top…
A state’s tax climate is a critical component in the site selection process. Below is the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index, which scores and ranks all states based on each major component of a state’s overall tax burden – corporate, individual income, sales, property, and unemployment insurance taxes. While each component is separately…
While criteria for location decisions are unique to a specific project’s needs, the “bedrock” factors tend to be on everyone’s lists. Talent attraction & retention, labor costs, efficiency in shipping goods/products, business environment, infrastructure, real estate costs and availability and economic incentives are the cornerstones of these corporate decisions. While no one state will score…
As CEOs bring workers back to the office, they’re hoping to see in-person interactions that boost collaboration and innovation — but those magic moments don’t always happen. Is it because some employees hired during the pandemic have never experienced office life? Are workers still filling their days with video calls? Or is the office layout…