1. Transportation, Logistics, and Economic Development
ITSVA Annual Conference
May 19, 2016

2. Hierarchy of Economic Development Needs
Engines of Innovation
Business Support
Technology Infrastructure
Basic Infrastructure
CULTURE
Connected Ecosystem
When determining where to invest in economic development, the U.S. Department of Commerce has suggested that there is a hierarchy of needs. Starting with the most basic infrastructure…
Basic Infrastructure – this includes available land, an educated or trained workforce, transportation and utilities
Technology Infrastructure – broadband, cellular, wireless
Business Support – incubators, accelerators, access to capital, additional training resources
Engines of Innovation – universities, R&D, commercialization of new technology, etc.
Connected Ecosystem – or as some have called it the “Entrepreneurial Ecosystem” that infuses the people and culture into the overall system which supports innovation and entrepreneurship
As states, regions and individual localities move up the pyramid, there are greater opportunities for economic growth and increased capacity for sustainability.
So we’re here today to talk about two of most basic of the foundational elements for economic development: transportation and technology.
U.S. Department of Commerce

3. Virginia has spent quite a bit of time and resources looking to develop mega-sites in Virginia. Those are sites that are generally larger than 500 acres with a goal of creating a $250 million investment and over 400 jobs.
But here is also demand for sites between 100 and 500 acres, a lack of “ready to go” sites in Virginia and we’re getting eliminated. So the state has developed the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program.
We have worked with Dominion & VEDP for 24 months as part of the Virginia Ally Work Group
Focusesd on 100+ acre sites
Evaluated 100 sites
Worked thru legislative budget process to secure funding – grant program to be announced on June 1
Looking to obtain site certification for Tier 4 or better sites…
…so what is Tier 4???

4. Timmons Group has a long history of working with the state, regional economic development partnerships and local economic development authorities on the recruitment of companies and development of sites across the Commonwealth. As we were working more and more of these prospects, we were starting to see commonalities of what made a deal successful and what made a site get eliminated. In order to better understand and frame up what was going on in the industry, we started to develop a tier system for site preparedness to understand what makes a site successful. These tiers include
Tier 0
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3 (example: Rolls-Royce – master planned site in Prince George County, County-acquired property, significant due diligence completed)
Tier 4 (example: Amazon – both Chesterfield and Dinwiddie, County-acquired property, infrastructure already in place or being developed)
Tier 5 pad or shovel-ready sites, walk-in, get a permit and start construction (example: Caterpillar “Project Roadrunner” left Japan, needed a 200+ acre site, Virginia competed but lost to Georgia: 1,400 jobs, $200 million investment, estimated a $2.4 billion regional impact)
After we rolled out the system, we had several people tell us they didn’t have anything, therefore where would that place them. Being responsive to the market we added a “Tier 0”, which essentially means “I have nothing and need to find sites”, so this becomes “Site Identification”
Tier 1 is Site negotiation, which means you have raw land with a willing seller but no control
Tier 2 is Site Control / Zoning, which means you’ve either negotiated an option agreement or have purchase the project (i.e. have the site under control), you have it in the comp plan and/or zoned it industrial or business and have done minimal due diligence
Tier 3 is the Planning / Due Diligence stage – You’re in the process of completing a Master Plan for the site, estimating your potential development costs, and performing significant due diligence such as geotech, wetlands delineation, cultural resources, etc.
Up to a Tier 3, other than land acquisition, your $/acre investment has been minimal, maybe $4,000-6,000 per acre.
Tier 4 is where you make the “Big Jump” from an investment perspective, and dependent upon the site location, available infrastructure, you could spend anywhere from $30,000 to 60,000 per acre at this point in time
Tier 5 is where you make the investment to clear the site and create a “Shovel Ready” or “Pad Ready” site and can cost between $15 to 30k per acre

5. Amazon site in Chesterfield
1M s.f. on approximately 100 acres
Amazon Fulfillment Centers: $135 million investment on 2 sites, announced 1,350 jobs but since then they have created over 3,600
VEDP went to Seattle with 3 localities (Winchester, Chesterfield and Dinwiddie) and each locality got 15 minutes to pitch their sites

6. Success breeds success: current site with Medline and Capital One

7. But they’re not done: took proceeds from land sale to build more infrastructure…

8. Paul R. Trapp, PE paul.trapp@timmons.com
Questions?
Paul R. Trapp, PE