BLS & Co. worked with Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) on two projects: a New Jersey-based incentives advisory and a Florida-based site selection.
BLS & Co. developed and executed the incentives strategy to facilitate the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s (DTCC) move from Lower Manhattan to Jersey City, New Jersey. DTCC’s migration and ongoing operations in New Jersey were financed, in part, by the EDA’s Business Employment Incentive Program (BEIP). DTCC also became the first beneficiary of the Economic Redevelopment and Growth (ERG) Grant program.
In 2002, the “Fed White Paper” challenged the financial industry to make the investments required to assure continuity and liquidity in capital markets. For the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), this challenge gave rise to an intensive confidential site search that scrutinized multiple markets over six months. The search ultimately concluded in Tampa, where the collaboration of state, county and city commitments made a material difference in off-setting project costs.
The approved incentives included the Governor’s Closing Fund and new city and county programs created for this project. BLS & Co. also advised the client on integration and restructuring of its pre-existing incentives agreement in NYC into its overall redeployment and diversification of operations to Florida.
Our New Jersey incentives advisory project resulted in:
Our Florida site selection project resulted in:
BLS & Co. has represented Citigroup on projects throughout North America. We managed the development and implementation of an incentive strategy for two mirror 300,000 sf data center facilities, one in Ohio and one in Texas. The incentives in both locations included real and personal property tax abatements. In Ohio, BLS & Co. structured a unique public financing, including the creation of a Port Authority.
BLS & Co. serves as location and incentives advisor to biotechnology industry leader Genentech, the South San Francisco-based member of the Roche Group. Genentech develops, manufactures and commercializes medicines to treat patients worldwide with serious medical conditions. During our most recent engagement for Genentech, BLS & Co. managed a nationwide search for a second location for their Access Solutions Patient Service Center. Access Solutions employees help patients understand their insurance benefits; find ways to help those who cannot afford their Genentech medicines; and work with doctors and pharmacists to deliver medicines to patients. With the advice and guidance of the firm, Genentech selected Portland, OR for this mission critical operation, which opened for business in May 2019. The new Portland Patient Access Center employs approximately 175 full-time specialists and an almost equal number of contingent employees during the peak insurance benefit open season. The firm also advised Genentech on an Oregon Business Retention Program (BEP) grant and various market-entry strategies.
BLS & Co. served as incentives advisor during the relocation of the headquarters of CPG International from Skokie, Illinois (part of the Chicago MSA). Complicating the move was the need to move the C-Suite to the new location in advance of the rest of the headquarters staff, necessitating the potential for staged growth, potentially in multiple locations. Other locations considered included downtown Chicago and Cincinnati, OH.
Since our first project with Eli Lilly and Company (“Lilly”) in 2008, BLS & Co. has served as strategic advisor on multiple site selection and incentives advisory projects throughout the company’s real estate portfolio, involving over $8 billion in planned investment and 3,000 in announced new positions.
Project Highlights
BLS & Co served as site selection and incentives consultant for Omnicom Group Inc. in support of the company’s competitive location decision-making process for targeted functions to be relocated out of New York City.
BLS & Co. advised Omnicom on evaluation of alternative relocation strategies to maximize savings and minimize operational disruption by redeploying selected operations to be co-located with related functions in cities where the company has successful operating experience and excess real estate capacity. Ultimately, the incentives package from the State of New Jersey was sufficient to induce the company to relocate nearly 500 jobs to Jersey City. Omnicom considered locations in Connecticut, Texas, Ohio and Costa Rica before selecting New Jersey.
BLS & Co. represented Diageo during their new headquarters location decision-making process. Their 270,000 square foot building in Norwalk, CT represented the very first project approved under the State's new Urban Reinvestment Act program and resulted in a reward of transferable tax credits, as well as sales tax exemptions and property tax abatements.
BLS & Co. and its principals have provided ongoing site selection and incentives advisory services to QVC, including warehouse and call center location projects in North America and Europe. Our most recent engagement for QVC resulted in a 1 million square foot distribution center (expandable to 2 million square feet) in Florence, South Carolina.
BLS & Co. managed a multi-state, sequential site search, and secured incentives for the project, including free land, infrastructure grants, ad valorem tax abatements, job development grants, job tax credits, and sales tax exemptions.
In addition, BLS expedited permitting and as a result, the warehouse was able to open ahead of schedule.
Panasonic's North American headquarters in Secaucus, NJ no longer met the company's objectives for talent, energy efficiency and branding.
BLS & Co. was engaged to evaluate multiple destinations for the headquarters, both in the NY / NJ metro area as well as locations in CA, IL and GA where the company has surplus real estate capacity.
BLS & Co. was successful in securing a package of state and local incentives in connection with Panasonic’s decision to anchor a new Class A office tower in downtown Newark, including an Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit award and local grants through the Redevelopment Area Bond program.
Panasonic now occupies 10 floors of the 12-story building at Two Riverfront Plaza, Newark’s first new office building in more than 20 years. Designed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification for new construction and LEED platinum certification for interiors, the project is bringing 1,000 new employees into Newark’s downtown, and provides the catalyst for development of new retail, hospitality and other amenities in the city’s central business district.
CoreNet Global recognized the Panasonic project team with a 2013 Economic Development Leadership Award for spurring economic development, investment and employment in the Brick City.
When Roche required assistance to fast-track a decision on the location of its new Translational Clinical Research Center (TCRC), the company engaged BLS & Co. to secure incentives in support of this elite research early development organization. After a thorough site selection process, the company chose the build-to-suit Alexandria Center on Manhattan’s east side for its new facility.
BLS & Co. developed and executed an incentives strategy to induce the company to consolidate Royal Bank of Scotland's North American corporate bank, based in NYC, and its RBS/Greenwich Capital headquarters in a new office and trading floor in Stamford, CT. The package consists of transferable corporate income tax credits and other incentives in connection with the proposed retention and creation of approximately 1,800 jobs. The scale of this package required legislative hearings and consent.
BLS & Co. secured an incentives package for AeroFarms for its headquarters and R&D operation on a three-acre site in Newark, NJ, developed by the RBH Group. AeroFarms is the largest indoor aeroponic farm in the world, growing up to two million pounds per year of leafy greens in a safe, sanitary and environmentally controlled facility.
Subaru, which had outgrown its space in Cherry Hill, NJ, hired BLS & Co. to evaluate locations for a new ground-up headquarters and service engineering center. After considering sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the firm chose to locate adjacent to the Campbell Gateway District in Camden, NJ.
BLS & Co. was engaged by AbleTo Inc, a behavioral healthcare provider, to provide an incentives strategy for its planned new facility. The company was rapidly expanding, seeking to create new jobs in its technology and software development division with wages over $100,000 annually.
As part of the incentives package, AbleTo Inc., was approved for Excelsior Jobs Tax Credit incentive program for steadily creating new jobs in the state of New York.
Goya Foods is the premier provider of authentic Latino and Caribbean cuisine. BLS & Co. advised the company as it sought to address capacity constraints at its New Jersey headquarters and distribution facility.
BLS & Co. secured an award under the Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit program to support the project, which will include the creation of over 100 new jobs and the retention of over 300 existing jobs.
BLS & Co. provided incentives advisory services for SKF USA Inc.’s new Global Technical Center – Americas (GTCA), an engineering research and development center supporting SKF’s North and South American manufacturing operations. Naperville, IL -- a suburb of Chicago – was chosen for the 130,000 square foot build-to-suit facility.