Industrial Site Readiness

Land Readiness For Industrial Employment Making The Case Part I: Timing is Everything

Hurry Up! Communities Need to Be Ready Most opportunities come in short cycles and have to be taken advantage quickly (within weeks or months). Businesses need to move fast to take advantage of short product cycles and market moving innovations. Part I: Making the Case

Wait ! You must be patient with land Going from Raw Land to Jobs in Your Community can take years or even a decade to happen. – Regulatory Processes regarding development often take years to resolve. – Owners can often be reluctant to sell While opportunities come quickly they are often spaced years or decades apart. – Why? Building/Leasing cycles often come in short bursts and are at the front end of a product, business, or innovation cycle that often last for five to ten years. Part I: Making the Case

Land Readiness Get Started Today – You could be missing out on opportunities that could happen tomorrow. – Understand your level of readiness and push your community forward as soon and as fast as you can. Plan for Tomorrow – Understand that you are preparing for opportunities that might take years to materialize – Monitor changes to your land supply and be ready to take the needed actions to add to it over time. Part I: Making the Case

Making the Case for Industrial Readiness Part II The Art of the Deal

Site Selection Factors What site is best for the employer – Impact on the bottom line What site is best for the decision makers – Impact on the manager’s, brokers, consultant’s bottom line

Real Estate is Deal Driven Consultants, Site Selectors and Brokers usually only get paid if a deal goes through. Internal decision makers don’t get promoted and congratulated on the bad deals they avoided, they only get credit for the projects they complete. Part I: Making the Case

Deal Driven Decisions Often seem less rationale and are…. Deadline Driven Competitive Risk Averse The best sites from an operations perspective (cheapest labor, lowest transportation costs) often don’t offer these factors. Part I: Making the Case

Speed & Certainty Add Value! Value is created by reducing risk and increasing speed to market. Land costs are often just a small fraction of the lifecycle costs of a factory or distribution center. Speed to market is becoming increasingly important to companies and is only one of a few advantages a company has in a competitive global marketplace. Part I: Making the Case

Competitive Multiple Sites in Multiple States and Countries are now the norm. Site Selectors are more interested in finding reasons to eliminate your site than finding reasons to keep your site on a list. National/International State(s) Metro Region City/District Site Final Decision Screens WINNER! Part I: Making the Case

Your ability to recruit an employer and sell at a premium is often more a factor of your ability to close a deal quickly than because of your price or location or community. You often have more control over deal factors (speed, competitiveness, risk) than you do over business factors (labor force availability and costs, proximity to markets, taxes) Good News: You are in Control Part I: Making the Case

Part III Defining Readiness

Stages of Readiness Employment Ready 1-3 Months Building Ready 12 Months Project Ready 18 Months Decision Ready 2 Years or More Basic Readiness 3 Years or More Raw Land 5 Years or more Time to Occupancy Part II: Defining Readiness

Raw Land Land that is not in a UGB and is not zoned for industrial use is years or even a decade from becoming available for development in Oregon.

Basic Readiness Farm or Vacant Land within a UGB That is zoned industrial. This level of readiness is three to ten years from development and will be quickly dismissed by a majority of site selectors and potential employers. This represents the majority of employment land in Oregon. Part II: Defining Readiness

Decision Ready Sites Decision ready sites have been assessed for basic regulatory and physical readiness for development. – Are there wetlands? – How will the site be accessed? – Are there potential environmental issues from previous uses? – Are there threatened or endangered species? – Are utilities available ? – Do I have capacity levels to accommodate industrial uses (i.e. energy, water/sewer, telecommunications, transportation)? Part II: Defining Readiness

Certified Project Ready Sites Are clear for development and can start within six months of building proposal. These sites have cleared all of the decision ready criteria and are clear of any identified problems that need to be mitigated: – Wetlands mitigation plans has been approved through DSL – Contaminants have been cleared, eliminated, or capped – Zoning codes permitting procedures have been streamlined – Road capacity has been addressed Part II: Defining Readiness

Building Ready Are ready to start construction. Have ready infrastructure and an approved site plan and building permit. This is the highest level of readiness for land that is recommended for most communities. Larger communities usually have an inventory of such sites provided by private speculative developers. Part II: Defining Readiness

Employment Ready A building is in place and all that is needed is an occupancy permit from the locality. This level of readiness is usually only achieved with a significant private investment into the development of either a new speculative building or the reuse of a building that has been vacated by a previous tenant.

Our Recommendation Every community or region should have multiple sites greater than 20 acres that are both decision and project ready. Metropolitan areas with strategic advantages (ports, rail, highways) should consider having a competitive inventory of 50 and 100+ acre sites.

Why Large 20+ Acres Sites? Industrial Sites usually range around 40% to 60% developable. Additional land needs for buffering, expansion, yard space often increase needs beyond building footprint, access, and parking. Large divisible sites offer flexibility to a range of users and can be subdivided for additional flexibility.

Why Multiple Sites? Multiple sites allow for competition and reduce the risk of elimination from consideration: -Elimination due to physical factors (utilities, access, nearby uses) -Risk of an owner not willing or able to sell within the time-frame of the opportunity Part II: Defining Readiness

Why Decision Ready & Certified? Communities should be striving to get their most competitive large sites to a certified status over time. Decision ready should be viewed as minimal readiness while certified should be thought of as optimal readiness. Part II: Defining Readiness

Less Prepared Raw Land UGB Zoning Road Access Identified Wetlands Determined Soil Contamination Identified Utilities Wetlands Mitigated (as needed) Soils Cleaned (as needed) On Site Infrastructure: Water, Sewer, Access Roads Lots Defined & Graded For Sale Clear Title Threatened & Endangered Species Identified Archaeology Resolved (as needed) Project Ready Decision Ready Building Ready Employment Ready Permitted Building Plan Building In Place Occupancy Permit Basic Readiness Infrastructure Planned and/or develop (as needed) More Prepared Current State of Oregon Site Certification

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