Chart T
Are the communities you have worked with instituting investment
and/or job creation criteria, i.e., clawback provisions that must be
met in order for companies to receive incentives?
• Yes – This has always been the case
• Yes – More are doing so now than in the past
• No
53%
35%
11%
Chart U
Percentage of consultants who have found the following
factors deficient when performing location studies:
• Labor availability
• Incentive closing funds
• Advanced ICT services
• Pre-qualified sites
• Other factors
39%
37%
10%
37%
10%
Chart V
Is the tightening of credit markets affecting your clients’ facility plans?
• Yes
• No
69%
31%
Chart W
Are rising energy costs impacting your clients’ facility plans?
• Yes – Affecting facility operations
• Yes – Affecting supply/distribution
network decisions
• No
43%
45%
12%
Chart X
Are environmental concerns more important to your clients
now than in the past?
• Yes
• No
72%
28%
Chart Y
Percentage of those responding “yes” whose clients are
undertaking “green” measures:
• Energy-saving facility modifications
• Change in supply or distribution methods
• Recycling or re-use of waste products, etc.
• Other measures
100%
48%
70%
12%
Are the communities you have worked with offering specific
incentives for “green” initiatives?
• Yes
• No
37%
63%
of greater importance to their clients then reflected by this
year’s results. Perhaps all of the recent employee layoffs are
keeping these costs down and are responsible for this factor
being given lower priority.
The factor showing the greatest decline in the ratings
overall (14.5 percentage points) is expedited or fast-track per-
mitting. Again, 50 percent of the respondents to our 2008
Consultants Survey said their clients’ new facilities plans had
been put on hold so “fast-tracking” projects might not be as
important as in previous years.
And the site selection factor showing the second-largest
drop in the ratings given by the responding consultants
(down 12 percentage points) is availability of advanced ICT
services. The respondents to our 2008 Consultants Survey
ranked this factor 14th, with a 72. 8 percent combined rat-
ing, down from 10th place in 2007, when they gave it an
84.8 percent combined “very important” or “important”
rating. The rating of this factor was an anomaly in both the
Corporate and Consultants surveys, and I offer up the same
explanation for both. Our description of advanced ICT
services last year was “high-speed Internet, wireless, VOIP,
etc.” This year we changed that to read “T1, T3, OC” —
more esoteric terms. Next year, we’ll try to keep it simple
again and see if this factor bounces back up in the rankings.
Those responding to our 2008 Consultants Survey rated
the same quality-of-life factors in first and second place as
those responding last year: ratings of public schools was ranked
first, with a 73.7 percent combined rating, followed by low
crime rate in second place, with a 71. 6 percent rating. The
responding consultants also ranked the same two quality-of-
life factors as least important as were ranked as such by the
respondents to our 2008 Corporate Survey — recreational
opportunities and cultural opportunities. Again, these factors
take a back seat to other site selection and quality-of-life
concerns during turbulent economic times.
Finally, 78 percent of the responding consultants said
their clients consider whether there are business performing
similar activities to theirs in the area of search ( 70 percent of
