News
SITE SELECTION, CHICAGO STYLE
March 29, 2012
| Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Co has expanded into Chicago and hired Tracey Hyatt Bosman, a former Grubb & Ellis exec, to run the new Midwest operations. The Princeton, NJ firm sees opportunity in the heartland as states and localities scramble to attract businesses to pump up sour economies. (The municipalities make a Jersey firm feel like the prettiest firm at the dance.) | ||
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| The company's niche is incentives advisory, site selection, land use, and economic development—that is, looking for the highest and best use at the lowest cost. Here Tracey is getting ready to take to the skies in a chopper, since sometimes there's no substitute in site selection for seeing the lay of the land yourself. Tracey tells us Illinois governments are still offering incentives for the right development projects, but they've gotten much more choosy about them. Mainly, though, they're still following the money. (And who can blame them, considering those near-empty coffers?) The state is focused on attracting businesses that generate jobs—the more high-paying ones, the better—while local governments focus on those operations that expand property- and sales-tax rolls. | ||
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