The Wall Street Journal turned to BLS & Co.'s Jay Biggins for his perspective regarding the different paths Amazon and Apple have taken with their unconventional searches for new corporate campuses.

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"Apple’s approach has advantages, said Jay Biggins, executive managing director at Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co., a corporate-location strategy firm. By limiting publicity, companies can exert more control over the process, avoid being overrun with outreach from cities and focus negotiations to get more of what they want, he said.

The confidential search is more conventional. Mr. Biggins estimates that more than 90% of companies place new campuses or relocate existing headquarters without saying where they are looking, and most don’t even say they are looking.

Amazon announced in September it was seeking a location for a second headquarters, dubbed HQ2, that the online giant says could bring nearly 50,000 jobs and more than $5 billion in investment over nearly two decades. Its detailed list of criteria drew 238 applicants, which it narrowed to 20 cities in January, including Raleigh, Atlanta and three in the Washington, D.C., area. Amazon is expected to announce its selection later this year.

Amazon said it wanted a public process “to find a city that is excited to work with us and where our customers, employees and the community can all benefit.”

Amazon’s approach might “work competitive spirits into a real lather,” Mr. Biggins said, but it can trigger clashes within communities over incentives or a blame game if a city is eliminated. “It became a bit of a circus for many communities,” he said.

However, Amazon’s approach also allows it to collect data and cultivate relationships that it can use for future projects such as fulfillment or data centers, said Didi Caldwell, founding principal of Global Location Strategies, a Greenville, S.C., firm. Amazon has also been more transparent with communities than other companies, providing them with a clear outline of what the company wants, wrote K.C. Conway, director of research and corporate engagement at the Alabama Center for Real Estate.

Apple, which also plans to announce its choice this year, hasn’t said how many employees its new facility will host. Nor has it said where it is looking, except that it won’t be California, where its new space-age headquarters houses some 12,000 workers, or Texas, where it has its second-biggest campus in Austin, with more than 6,000 employees. Apple also has data centers in Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina.

Local governments haven’t spoken publicly about discussions with Apple, although North Carolina legislators on May 17 announced changes to the state’s incentives package targeting technology companies that pledge to invest at least $1 billion in the state and create at least 3,000 jobs.

Apple representatives also have spoken with officials in Virginia about options near Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reported last week.

Apple and Virginia officials declined to comment.

Planning a new corporate location is essentially a procurement process where companies try to get cities and states to offer tax incentives, cash and land, consultants say. Few are better equipped to manage that than Mr. Cook, Apple’s former chief operating officer, Mr. Biggins said."

Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gNdyJRD