HelloFresh, an international meal kit company with offices in New York City and Germany, chose to relocate and expand its operations to Newark, NJ.  After a nationwide search, the firm decided to lease a 217,000 square foot distribution space and an additional 20,000 square feet of office space in downtown Newark.  The NJ Economic Development Authority estimates the project will yield a net benefit to the state of $4.1 million over 20 years.

BLS & Co. advised Gartner on a headquarters location and incentives strategy, enabling the renewal of its lease in Stamford, Connecticut. Our firm secured incentives, utilizing the Urban and Industrial Site Reinvestment Tax Credit, DECD direct assistance, sales tax exemption and property tax abatement.

BLS & Co. also conducted a comprehensive evaluation of location options in multiple markets, including Columbus, GA and Jackson, MS, to accommodate Gartner’s growing space requirements for their operations in Ft. Myers, FL. Gartner ultimately decided to lease a newly constructed 120,000 sf facility adjacent to its existing building in Florida.

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.

BLS & Co. worked with the Philadelphia Inquirer to secure an incentives package for the retention of its headquarters in Center City.

BLS & Co. was successful in restructuring the RCAP incentives program as well as securing low interest rate financing through Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation.

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. advised New York Life on the relocation of approximately 1,000 employees from the company’s Manhattan headquarters location to a new facility in Westchester, New York.

BLS & Co. was successful in securing an economic development incentive package that included a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes), sales tax exemptions on construction materials and FF&E purchases, a state capital grant and a discount of the utility bills.

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.

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. 

Prudential employs more than 4,800 people in the City of Newark where the Company occupies more than 1.8 million square feet of space. With several of its leases in the City set to expire the Company commenced a comprehensive evaluation of its Newark occupancy to identify the optimal location strategy.

BLS & Co. advised Prudential on the role of incentives in its overall location strategy, and ultimately secured approval of an Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit award in support of the construction of a proposed new facility and the creation of new high-compensation positions.  The project, which will result in a redevelopment of an entire city block, represents the single largest project in Newark in a generation.  

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. 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.

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.

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. and its energy services affiliate Sugarloaf Associates conducted a thorough review of Florida Power & Light’s 35-county territory to pre-qualify sites for data centers and mission-critical facilities. Four diverse sites were selected.  The sites offer a unique combination of factors desired by today’s mission critical and data center operations, including highly reliable and redundant power and fiber infrastructures, competitive cost structures, and locations insulated from manmade and natural risks. 

BLS/SLA also provided advisory service and expert witness in the development of a new FPL electric economic development rider for data centers and large manufacturing plants in Florida's FPL territory.

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.