Summary
Lowered building cost by 15% using state funding source
Development and project management of new 600,000 square foot distribution center
Negotiated incentive and expense reduction of $9 million: cash grant for equipment, job creation tax credit, recruiting and training funds, site development grant, property tax abatement, and infrastructure grant for road and utility construction
Incentives and expense reduction equaled 15% of total project investment
OBJECTIVE
Select the optimal location for a 600,000 square foot auto parts distribution center from which AutoZone’s retail stores in the Northeast could be served; negotiate a strong financial incentive package; coordinate design and construction of the facility.
CHALLENGES
Accessing a large supply of high-quality workers; achieving the client-defined labor union profile; withholding the client’s identity until AutoZone was ready to begin recruiting, and finding good site options with low labor costs in a region with historically high-cost workers.
SOLUTION
Colliers’ site selection services optimization model, Indsite®, quickly identified optimal labor union, low-cost locations with large labor pools in close proximity to the centroid identified in a network optimization analysis.
A conceptual facility design was prepared for the AutoZone distribution center and used to assess the development feasibility and cost of each site identified. A detailed investment and operating cost analysis was performed on the finalist locations to document site development and facility construction costs, wages and benefits, property taxes and utility costs.