Get Your Mega Site "Project Ready"

Mega sites are a crucial asset for economic development due to their ability to attract large-scale industrial and manufacturing investments. As businesses seek sites that offer robust infrastructure and low development risks, comprehensive site preparedness is crucial for competitiveness. Well-prepared mega sites can accelerate investment decisions, reduce development/construction timelines and attract large-scale projects that create jobs and foster economic growth.

As you work to advance sites in your community to achieve the next level of readiness, we encourage you to use this article as a "checklist" to prepare your sites for investment.

Clear Site Boundaries and Maps of Site Infrastructure

Accurately defining site boundaries ensures that all stakeholders, from potential investors to local officials, share a clear understanding of the property's scope, reducing the risk of disputes and simplifying development processes such as permitting and construction.

As site selectors, we often receive property submissions with ambiguous or poorly defined site boundaries. This is an easy challenge to overcome. We encourage economic developers to create digital files that clearly outline site boundaries using mapping formats such as a .KMZ or .KML files, which can be created using Google Earth.

Infrastructure maps should highlight utilities, line sizes and current capacities, including water, sewer, electric, gas and fiber networks. With these details readily available, potential investors can quickly assess whether the site meets their operational requirements or if additional upgrades may be necessary.

Utility Capacity and Availability

Large utility capacities are critical for large-scale industrial operations. A letter from each utility provider (water, sewer, electricity, natural gas) describing available capacity and potential timelines to extend service should accompany a property submission. These letters should be regularly updated to reflect the current conditions.

Having accurate capacity data provides an opportunity to identify potential gaps, allowing owners to partner with local utility providers to plan necessary upgrades ahead of time. As mega projects often have large capex budgets, the exact location / time / cost to extend infrastructure may be of less relative importance to the project than the ultimate load available.

As utilities become constrained, it's increasingly difficult for providers to estimate precise capacities, which often results in a large contingency factor and other conditional language related in estimates. As such, a utility may be able to estimate higher-level indicators of capacity, such as approximate time in months to deliver large demand loads to customers. For example, rather than providing a capacity estimate, a power utility may be able to say that it could meet the needs of a customer with a 50 MW peak demand in approximately 24 months, and a 100 MW peak demand in 36 – 48 months.

Property Availability and Pricing

Securing a letter from the property owner confirming the site's availability and asking price is essential for fostering transparency, reducing uncertainty and ensuring that the site's pricing structure aligns with market expectations and industry requirements. Further, the property owner letter demonstrates that the property is ready for development, making it more appealing to potential investors.

Zoning and Ordinances

Clear zoning designations, zoning maps and ordinances should be in place and align with the site's target industries before marketing the site to avoid delays during the development phase. Additionally, Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CCRs) should be clearly documented, if they apply. Investors prefer sites with pre-approved zoning, as this eliminates the risk of rezoning processes and associated costs.

Completed Environmental, Geotechnical, Legal and Cultural Studies

One of the primary concerns for potential investors is the risk associated with unforeseen environmental, legal or geotechnical issues. To address these concerns, all relevant studies should be completed and compiled prior to marketing the site. This includes:

• Environmental Assessments: Validating there are no hazardous materials, protected species or other environmental concerns that could delay construction.
• Geotechnical Studies: Evaluating soil stability, load-bearing capacity and potential risks such as sinkholes or erosion.
• Legal and Cultural Reviews: Confirming that the site is free from legal disputes or cultural preservation issues that could impact construction and development timelines.

Providing completed studies upfront demonstrates transparency and reduces the amount of time investors need to conduct their own assessments, giving the site a competitive advantage.

On-Site Photographs

Incorporating a well-balanced mix of high-quality visuals into the property flyer helps attract attention, increase impact and effectively demonstrates the site's value. These visuals can include current, real-world and aerial photographs of the property, highlighting the terrain and access points, as well as regional maps highlighting the site's location in relation to ports, major highways, airports and major cities.

Conclusion

Mega site preparedness is a comprehensive process that involves addressing key elements such as site mapping, visuals, utility readiness, property availability, zoning and completed assessments. Prepare the above materials in advance in a digital folder ("data room") that can be easily sent as a digital package to prospects.

By proactively managing these aspects, economic development teams can present a site that is both appealing and development-ready, minimizing risks and speeding up project timelines. In a competitive environment, the readiness of a mega site is critical in attracting large-scale investments that bring long-term economic benefits to the region.

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Originally published on Area Development, Get Your Mega Site ‘Project Ready’ - Area Development