BLS & Co. served as site selection and incentives consultant for Bristol-Myers Squibb's new North American Capability Center (NACC) in Tampa, FL. BMS’ goal for the NACC was to house key enterprise services—technology, finance, and accounting—together with research and analytics, and to do so in a cost-effective market. The NACC project required BLS & Co. to identify and prove out low-cost, yet high-quality, markets with diverse pools of talent.
BLS & Co. managed a team of brokers, designers, and the company’s own human resource, technology, and function heads during an engagement that resulted in the successful site selection, incentive agreement, staffing, and opening of the NACC—all within a nine-month window.
Our firm also served as site selection and incentives consultant during a complex and highly competitive nationwide search for the location of a new $750 million, large-scale multi-product bulk biologics facility in Devens, MA. The facility (the largest capital investment in BMS history) supports the production of ORENCIA (R), the company's biologic therapy for rheumatoid arthritis.
Consulting for the NACC in Tampa resulted in...
Consulting for the Biologics Facility in MA resulted in...
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.
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. 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.
BLS & Co. secured an incentives package for Nestlé Waters North America Inc, relocating its North American headquarters from Greenwich to Stamford, CT. The Stamford location meets the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® (LEED) standards for green buildings.
To help fund the project, BLS & Co. secured an incentives package comprising of low-interest loans, state tax credits and tax exemptions.
BLS & Co. was engaged by Mead Johnson Nutritionals, following its spinoff by Bristol-Myer Squibb, to advise the company on the choice of destination for its new executive offices.
BLS & Co. managed a multi-market comparative analysis in North America that ultimately resulted in the relocation of the company's leadership tier to a new Class A office space in Glenview, IL (suburban Chicago).
The firm also secured an EDGE grant from the State of Illinois to reduce the costs and help manage the risks associated with the redeployment.
BLS & Co. crafted land use and community engagement strategies to assist Hercules with the disposition of 2,100 acres of brownfields in New Jersey. The engagement involved strategies to reposition and/or redevelop four sites on a portfolio basis, quickly enabling sale of the most market-ready property to generate the resources needed to pursue the redevelopment potential of the longer-lead sites.
BLS & Co.'s efforts focused on an affirmative, inclusive community/intervenor strategy to define the benefits associated with redevelopment, including demonstrating the fiscal and economic impacts of a market-based approach to re-use of the sites. BLS & Co. also managed an RFP process to identify and select the most qualified bidders for the sites, then managed the transaction that resulted in the sale of a 100-acre property in Burlington, New Jersey which has since been redeveloped with over 1 million square feet of modern warehouse space.
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. was engaged to advise Burlington Coat Factory (BCF) as part of a competitive location decision-making process for the location of the company’s headquarters. BCF considered locations within New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
BLS & Co. secured an incentive package from the State of New Jersey consisting of Grow NJ tax credits and an exemption from sales tax on construction materials and equipment purchases.
BLS & Co. advised Colgate Palmolive on behalf of a new personal care products manufacturing plant in Greenwood, South Carolina. The initial search geography included the southeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. BLS & Co.'s energy services group performed infrastructure due diligence on the preferred site, identifying several critical issues to be remedied. The incentive package was comprised of various tax credits for job creation, investment, and port usage; a closing fund grant award; sales and use tax exemptions, training assistance, and property reductions.
Bank of New York (BNY) Mellon had multiple near-term lease expirations across three states, requiring review of a wide range of location options to consolidate operations and reduce costs.
Other states offered significant "new job" incentives to attract BNY Mellon, but New Jersey was ill-equipped to save its existing jobs. BLS & Co. initiated a campaign to create a new "retention" incentive for New Jersey, beginning with a "white paper" on its policy merits, and organized a coalition of business and government leaders to promote the new legislation.
The new program - Business Retention & Relocation Grant (BRRAG) - provided transferable tax credits for large projects, and premium incentives for projects relocating to urban centers. The legislature adopted BRRAG in time for BNY Mellon's location decision.
BLS & Co. conducted a comparison of warehouse labor markets in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia to help inform Avon's location decision-making.
We examined labor supply, demand, quality, and cost indicators including present and projected population levels, unemployment rates, education attainment, unionization, wage and income levels.
BLS & Co. was engaged by Kuehne + Nagel, a global transport and logistics company, to provide site selection services for a planned new operation and training facility. After a nationwide search, Kuehne + Nagel decided to locate its first-ever Operational Care Center (OCC) and Career Development Program in downtown Detroit. The office will employ nearly 200 people by 2021.
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.
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. 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: