CRITICAL INSIGHTS FOR Automotive, Industrial, Distribution & Manufacturing Facility Site Selection Process
Property selection for companies establishing or relocating industrial and manufacturing facilities has many vital considerations including availability of adequate contiguous land, suitability of the property for their business, access to resources, ongoing materials availability, tax abatements, incentives, availability of utilities, and access to a labor pool in the vicinity. Selecting an experienced and regionally knowledgeable consultant team results in less time wasted, targeted identification of suitable properties, and a streamlined vetting process of potential sites.
OTHER KEY BENEFITS INCLUDE:
• Providing due diligence and site evaluations to identify or eliminate potential sites quickly
• Meeting evaluation, reporting, and due diligence requirements
• Determining the viability of a site for the intended manufacturing operations
• Maintaining relationships with officials and a working knowledge of state and local development/site selection regulations
• Creating informed concept layouts of the facility in operation
STARTING THE SITE SEARCH
Public Sites. Available public sites can be found on county/state websites, chambers of commerce, economic development
organizations and on Development Board and utility websites such as Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Public properties listed as Select Tennessee on the IDB sites must undergo a thorough due diligence process that may include a Phase I environmental assessment, wetlands review, survey, geotechnical evaluation, endangered species review, and archaeological investigations. Fully vetted sites become available to anyone searching for properties. Other states have similar industrial development programs that increase industrial opportunities for the community. While programs may differ between states, most programs cite the criteria above as the minimum required for an initial evaluation.
Private Sites. Additional programs such as Select Certified Site programs help communities prepare industrial sites for investment and job creation. The program sets rigorous standards to give companies detailed
and reliable information during the site selection process. There’s No Substitute for Experience. The right team of experts can help you balance your site search with critical transportation, economic, environmental, social, and political considerations. Founded in 1964, TTL, an engineering design firm focused on delivering integrated infrastructure solutions for public and private clients, is a key part of the team working directly with site selection experts as well as certified public entities.
TTL is frequently called upon by economic development organizations to perform the required due diligence of available sites in the region. “Because of TTL’s work on the front end evaluating available properties, we can often offer knowledge of the site, along with the experience from being involved with the site for automotive, manufacturing, and industrial facilities,” said TTL’s Barry Cleveland, Industrial Market Leader. “After a site is identified, TTL can provide more in-depth evaluations, designs, and concepts to fully evaluate a site for a prospective purchaser.” The TTL team is extremely knowledgeable about state, regional,
combined with and our knowledge of the geographical regions and how they impact site selection process –positions TTL as the go-to partner both for site selection and site development for the manufacturing, distribution, and automotive industries.”
NEXT STE PS
Once a potential site has been shortlisted as a viable contender, the TTL team works collaboratively with the client and other key team members (including the architect, owners’ representative, and designer) to provide further information and evaluation regarding the site’s viability for the intended use. This includes:
• Additional survey(s) as needed
• Geotechnical design
• Environmental issues as part of owner’s due diligence
• Risk assessment through seismic testing
• Site design
• Concept plan
» General layout
» Location of utilities
» Interconnectivity of overall site
• 3D technology
» Conceptual layout of how a property will flow during operation
» Highlight infrastructure
» Concept drawings using the building footprint
• Design of the facility’s civil components alongside the architect or with a prototype go-by
• Construction phase monitoring, testing, and requests for information as needed
and local ordinances as well as codes and restrictions that might impact a particular site. The firm’s integrated services and comprehensive site selection process is offered in every southeastern state and Texas. “We work with certified sites programs as well as county and municipal IDBs that are not a part of larger programs,” said Michael Cochrane, PE, Sr. VP Civil Engineering Services. “The close relationship we have with these entities –
TTL’s experience performing hundreds of similar site assessments is a huge value add. We know what the client is looking for and what they need often before they do.
SUGANDH RAJPAL, PE EXECUTIVE VP GEOTECHNICAL/ENERGY SERVICES, MARKET LEADER
SOLVING CHALLENGES IS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT
Major industrial and manufacturing clients turn to TTL repeatedly to assist in their site searches for new locations and expansions of operations. Power clients have chosen TTL as part of their site selection and engineering team.
AUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURER
A major automotive manufacturer proposed to invest roughly $1B into the automobile industry in the states of Alabama and Tennessee. TTL performed site development, property acquisition, environmental due diligence, led state Brownfields program, geotechnical, civil and site engineering, preliminary design concepts, and construction phase activities. TTL’s suite of in-house services helped turn a previously undesirable site into a state-of-the-art facility.
NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPER/CONTRACTOR
A multi-year relationship has resulted in the completion of approximately 50 projects for a national industrial developer/contractor and their family of companies. They bestowed TTL with their “Designer of the Year” award recognizing the strong relationship and ‘service, performance, and partnership’ between TTL and the firm. “TTL is considered part of the design team. We’re not just a service provider,” said TTL’s Patrick Gupton, PE, Sr. VP Construction Services. “TTL was recently awarded another project in north Alabama that continues our partnership with this client.”
A key difference in how TTL provides services to clients revolves around the firm’s involvement at the kickoff of the site selection process through the evaluation of each potential location for its individual suitability for the intended operations. Recommendations are specific for each site, not pre-packaged standard recommendations. “When you know the clients well, you’re able to anticipate their needs and save them money,” said Gupton. For instance, on one site which met most criteria,
TTL recommended adjusting the size of a building and reorienting it to avoid a prominent sinkhole on the property. For another project, TTL was tasked with a challenging project which required tying pavements from an existing building to a new building with connected utility lines beneath both properties to create one uniform facility. TTL explored alternatives to blasting bedrock beneath the site, which was environmentally invasive and would significantly impact the schedule and potentially increase the budget. TTL’s recommended solution capitalized on using an existing sinkhole or karst (topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum) feature as a detention and drainage feature.
Additional site challenges involved significant elevation inconsistencies requiring ‘cut and fill’ (balancing the site by filling in low areas and cutting other areas to create a consistent site elevation). This process is often costly as importing new material for fill can be quite expensive and, in this instance, would impact the employee parking area. TTL performed a study determining that lowering the site by three feet required substantially less imported fill and only sacrificed 15 parking spaces.
CRITICAL INSIGHTS, CONTINUED
SHOVEL-READY SITES
TTL’s in-house team can condense the timeline and promote constructability by providing the due diligence and site layout to get a project to the shovel-ready stage by completing:
• Testing
• Geotechnical
• Due Diligence
• Environmental
• Preliminary Concept Layout
• Design
BENEFITS OF THE TTL TEAM
TTL delivers services relating to the site selection process in all areas of the southeastern United States and Texas. A host of in-house expertise related to the site selection process further allows TTL to augment the team’s service offerings by providing traffic analysis, utilities evaluation and accessibility, comprehensive permitting services, and coordination with local and regional authorities.
Contact Barry Cleveland at bcleveland@ttlusa.com to assist with your next site selection search.
KEY ELEMENTS NEEDED FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION:
TTL can provide site concepts, enginering plans, utility plans, and other critical information to address most checklist items:
Product
• Site Description
• Zoning/Regulations
• Tax Abatement/Incentives
• Size
• Current Use
• Topography
• Location - GPS Program - Industrial Key People Property Due Diligence
• Development Product
• Assess Development Cost
• Utility Infrastructure (Water/Sewer/Natural Gas) onand-off site
• Energy
• Environmental Phase I: Wetland/Archeological/ Endangered Species Evaluations
• Boundary and Topographic Survey
• Water Resources
• Site Access
Ownership Control
• Property Owned by IDB
• 3+ Year Agreement in Place to Purchase Property
Infrastructure
• Road Access
• Power Availability from Grid
Site Development
• Concept Plan
• Rail Availability
• Tree Removal and Karst Features
• Pad-Ready Site
• Stormwater Management
• Utility Installation Plan (if not at the site) Optics*
• Clean Site for Visual and Site Access
Carbon Reduction - Green Energy**
• Solar/Wind/Cogeneration Green Energy
• Credits Available from the Power Grid
* provided by IDB
**provided by power/utility company