Selecting a location for relocation or expansion is an investment of significant time and an exercise in patience. Evaluating options requires culling large amounts of information and evaluating that data to arrive at a decision.
Most businesses consider real estate options, workforce quality and availability, training, and business climate among other factors. They weigh those factors against other communities that meet their geographic, transportation and other needs to select the best option. That process can take years of careful evaluation from start to finish.
Payoff comes when companies find the site selection sweet spot. Global Future Energy Holdings, Inc. recently announced that Spokane Valley, Wash. will become the site of its first U.S. manufacturing and distribution facility. The company began looking for a site in 2005.
Spokane Valley “stood out as an ideal location due to available sites, a strong workforce” and a partnership opportunity with another local company, Marius de Mos, the company’s president and CEO, said in a news release. GFEH, which will do business as Prestyl in Spokane Valley, met its expansion needs on multiple fronts. Those kind of synergies are what seal site selection deals.
Prestyl has developed a proprietary infrared, thin-film heating technology. The technology, common in aerospace and mass transportation applications, will be used to produce infrared heating panels that can be mounted to ceilings and walls. Ecolite Manufacturing, a Spokane Valley company that engaged Prestyl during its site search, and will be a partner in manufacturing the panels.
“This project has been exciting and unique in that it provides a multi-faceted win for our organization and the greater community – incorporating elements of business recruitment, business expansion and foreign direct investment,” said Gary Mallon, technology industry manager for Greater Spokane Incorporated, which recruited Prestyl.
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