ATLANTA—Colliers International Group's acquisition of the Walker Cos. platform greatly expands Colliers' industrial and logistics site selection and location capability. The new solution includes specialty site selection and incentive negotiation technology fully integrated with proprietary project and construction management expertise. Branded as Colliers Indsite, it will be available exclusively to Colliers clients in the US.

President | US brokerage at Colliers, Martin Pupil says the combination of “cutting-edge software, consolidated databases and proprietary site selection and incentive management process is designed to provide clients with a unique solution to their complex site selection needs especially in the world of logistics.” Walker Cos. founder Raymond Walker and his partner John Warden will lead the IndSite specialty team. GlobeSt.com spoke with Pupil about the specifics of what the integration of the IndSite platform will mean for Collier's clients.

GlobeSt.com: For industrial occupiers, what are some of the key consideration in site selection that Colliers' new IndSite platform will address more effectively?

Martin Pupil: Indsite is a comprehensive computer model that consolidates hundreds of different datasets, both published and proprietary. It resides within powerful Geographic Information System (GIS) software that allows very fast customized analyses down to the census tract level across the entire US. One of its most valuable features is the ability to search for locations that best meet the client's requirements for a wide range of user-defined location criteria, such as strong labor availability, low wages, competitive costs, cheap power, minimal operational risk, and others.

The site selection issues Colliers can address more effectively are quantifying geographically variable operating costs that have the greatest bottom-line impact on a client's profitability. For the industrial user these are transportation costs, labor cost, availability and quality, taxes, utility expenses and of course facility costs. But a wide range of other factors can also be analyzed and compared quantitatively and spatially such as operational risk, population demographics, labor union influence and much more.

The Walker Cos. acquisition also includes a proprietary site search process available to Colliers' clients on a national platform. This new process incorporates supply chain analysis, facility design, jurisdictional and site due diligence, incentive negotiations and turn-key real estate implementation. Colliers can provide these services to clients anywhere across the country.

GlobeSt.com: Is IndSite applicable to site-selection consultants as well as occupiers? What is the value proposition for each of these users?

Pupil: Indsite is applicable to consultants and occupiers, but is only available to Colliers clients. It is not available to third-party consultants. We consider it a powerful competitive weapon to gain market share on large site search assignments.

The value proposition is robust. We can deliver more and better quality information extremely fast, and execute complex projects from start to finish. The deliverables and process reduce risk while saving clients millions of dollars on each engagement both in one-time capital investment costs, but more importantly every day they operate the new facility.

GlobeSt.com: Are there also potential applications for designers and developers of industrial spaces?

Pupil: Indeed. Developers (and their designers) have new and expanded ways to assess risk and reduce development costs. The value creation from in-depth site and community due diligence or incentive negotiations (e.g. tax abatement, infrastructure cost reductions, etc.) should flow through to the end user and make the developer more competitive. They should also support a better long-term relationship between the developer and community.

GlobeSt.com: The IndSite platform joins Colliers products oriented toward the needs of office tenants, including corporate occupiers. Obviously industrial and office users have very different requirements from one another; what are common elements for both classes of tenant?

Pupil: Everyone wants to reduce costs and risk. Both office and industrial users have similar cost factors that include labor, taxes, utilities and facility costs. The qualitative analyses of these factors are also similar and our experience assessing them ensures a better long-term solution whether for office, industrial or retail users. It also applies to real estate investors.

GlobeSt.com: Finally, what are some possible new areas or capabilities that the Walker Cos. team will focus on?

Pupil: Colliers already has an experienced data center advisory team. Indsite has exceptional application here and we want to integrate the new capability to this service line as soon as possible. Also, our Supply Chain Solutions team is a new platform started by Colliers in 2016. Detailed transportation studies are usually the critical first step to any new regional or national distribution facility project. Integrating the Supply Chain and Indsite platforms provides a powerful end-to-end service for any industrial user, whether for distribution or manufacturing applications.

Distribution seems to get all the press, but Indsite is an unbelievable tool for helping manufacturer's site major investments. In addition to the cost factors mentioned previously, Indsite is an invaluable tool to identify areas close to critical infrastructure such as river and sea ports, intermodal terminals, important suppliers, heavy power, critical labor skills and other site selection criteria important to manufacturing operations.

E-commerce fulfillment facilities are also an area of strong growth for Colliers where Indsite will be helpful. These are more than high-tech distribution centers, as their labor requirements can be extraordinary, especially around the holidays. Indsite is a terrific tool to help identify the locations that can best meet these very large, full-time and seasonal labor requirements.

GlobeSt.com: For industrial occupiers, what are some of the key consideration in site selection that Colliers' new IndSite platform will address more effectively?

GlobeSt.com: Is IndSite applicable to site-selection consultants as well as occupiers? What is the value proposition for each of these users?

GlobeSt.com: Are there also potential applications for designers and developers of industrial spaces?

GlobeSt.com: Finally, what are some possible new areas or capabilities that the Walker Cos. team will focus on?

Instant Insights /

Bringing Speed and Depth to Site Selection

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