Peek Traffic looked at several cities for its US headquartersand settled on the Manatee County area, where the company will haveaccess to international trade, as well as the necessary pool ofpotential employees. "(Peek Traffic) chose the West Coast ofFlorida to base its new US operation for several reasons," R.R.Simmons CEO Randy Simmons explains to GlobeSt.com. "Reasonsincluded the established workforce and affordable facility cost,but more importantly is the potential access to the emerging LatinAmerican markets. The Bay area is becoming a hub for accessingCentral and South America."

The two-story facility will be home to Peek Traffic'sengineering and manufacturing departments, US administrativeheadquarters and a training-and-product demonstration area. "Peekrecognized the need for a rapid delivery of the new facility andwas impressed by the track record of Simmons as a design-builder tomeet their compressed schedule," Simmons adds. "Providing both thedesign and construction through their internal resources allowedthe pre-construction process to be significantly shortened." Theexpected completion date for the project was not disclosed.