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We're on a mission to help companies of all sizes identify the best locations, secure incentives, obtain development approvals and optimize energy strategies through Location Economics®.
BLS & Co. conducted a thorough review of Florida Power & Light’s 35-county territory to pre-qualify sites for data centers and other mission-critical facilities.
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. utilizes an assortment of services – a process we call Location Economics® – to advise clients on location decisions. Discover our variety of offerings to help you navigate the complex decision making processes that occur when searching for a new location for your organization.
BLS & Co. specializes in a variety of industries and our dedicated team is compromised of experts in nearly all major categories.
At BLS & Co., we have executed wide variety of projects for our clients, which includes facilities such as headquarters, warehouses, and data centers.
Stay up to date with BLS & Co. by exploring our latest news and musings on the world of site selection and more.
We're proud to provide a few key resources to help get you started on your site selection journey.
Search our North American database for your ideal location for your company's HQ, R&D Facilities, and more.
If your organization is confronting complex and sensitive location decisions, please reach out to schedule a confidential conversation.
Interested in a career opportunity with BLS & Co.? Click below to learn more about our growing team and view all current openings.
Go beyond wage arbitrage, purchase price variance and landed cost. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) may show that, for product to be sold in the U.S., you will be equally profitable with a U.S. manufacturing cost up to 20% to 35% higher than offshore. The TCO tool is recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce for use in the reshoring/offshoring decision.
The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Estimator is a free online tool that helps companies account for all relevant factors — overhead, balance sheet, risks, corporate strategy and other external and internal business considerations — to determine the true total cost of ownership. Using this information, companies can better evaluate sourcing, identify alternatives and even make a case when selling against offshore competitors. All inputs are user generated, except freight, which is calculated to Chicago. Explanations and references are provided. All calculation formulas are shown for transparency. The system automatically generates for each source, the current total cost, a forecast for 5 years and a graph showing the mix of hard and more subjective costs. The system has been used by 1,500+ individuals/companies. Here is a guide to getting started using TCO.
If a location in the U.S. is being considered, go to the next step.
For a manufacturing plant, the production process and equipment should be planned with a process engineer, recognizing that the U.S. version of the plant will likely be more highly automated than its emerging market counterpart. Define the plant inputs, including suppliers, transportation, labor, real estate, utilities and other location factors such as community preferences, accessibility and other operating factors. Calculate the project investment and identify the desired timeline to begin operations.
Although there are financing programs and incentives available from most states and local communities, these programs rarely fund 100 percent of a project. You will need to provide at least a portion of the capital required, whether through internal means or outside investors. Having a firm understanding of any gap will be important to incentive discussions.
There are many resources available to assist with site selection, most notably economic development agencies and site selection consultants.
In the U.S. at the state, local and regional levels economic development agencies have been given responsibility to help attract and retain business investment and jobs to their respective states and communities.
They can be excellent initial resources of preliminary information at no cost; however, there are also some limitations: the information available from one ED organization may not be available at the same level of detail or in same format as other regions you are considering making it difficult to compare locations. Also, bear in mind that economic development organizations do not have a fiduciary responsibility to your company. Rather, they are required to represent the best interest of the communities they represent. – i.e. to get you to choose their location for the lowest incentives.
A professional site selection consultant assists companies in formulating their site selection process and executing their strategy including data collection, analysis and field work. Most site selection consultants work closely with state and local economic development agencies as well as utilizing internal and subscription-based data services and other tools through an established methodology. This expertise can be a valuable resource to your project to keep the search process objective, confidential, focused, on-schedule, and efficient, while also not draining your internal personnel resources.
An efficient site selection process is really more of a site “elimination” process. Location screening and scoring criteria, beginning with high-level considerations and then evolving into site-specific considerations, will guide you through a progressively shorter and shorter list of potential locations. While each project will require a customized approach, weighting of factors, and sequencing of analysis, each step of the process should allow you to narrow down to options that hold the greatest potential for the new operation, while eliminating those that do not.
Finalist locations should be able to meet all operational needs, so at this step, you will want to prepare a detailed financial analysis for each finalist site and secure incentive programs that will help “close the deal” by providing upfront and/or ongoing cost savings and risk management.
Simultaneously, it is prudent to conduct property due diligence to obtain commitments on utility services and other needs, as well as to ensure there are no surprises once the first shovel goes into the ground for development. At this phase, it may be appropriate to engage an engineering firm to assist with the technical review of the site attributes.
The final step is to acquire the property and begin detailed engineering of the facility and implementation of the project. Many construction timelines for new manufacturing operations are 12-18 months, or more, depending on the type of operation and the location.
For more information on how to reshore, please reach out to Michelle Comerford at mcomerford@blsstrategies.com or see our additional resources below.
