Site selection built on operating variables, not listings
A site decision is an operating decision, and the right one pays for itself for a decade: labor that shows up, power that energizes on schedule, freight that moves at cost, an entitlement calendar that holds. The building is the container; the location determines the rest. Site selection at Industrial Real Estate Advisors starts with the operation and works outward, which is why the process looks less like touring and more like feasibility.
Six variables, one decision
Labor
Labor force depth by submarket, wage positioning by role, commute sheds, and the competitive employer landscape. A building without a workforce is a liability with dock doors.
Power
Availability, capacity, and the timeline to energize. Power is now a gating variable in industrial site decisions, not an afterthought.
Transportation
Highway lane access, rail service, drayage economics, and customer reach measured in drive hours, not miles on a map.
Utilities + Water
Utility capacity and timelines, and water where process loads demand it. Infrastructure constraints surface late unless they are asked about early.
Entitlements
Zoning, permitting, and what the entitlement calendar does to the occupancy date and the pro forma.
Incentives
Modeled against your actual operating profile, not assumed from a brochure. A program that looks compelling may be immaterial to your P&L, and occasionally the reverse.
The framework weighs all six against your operation. The ranking that matters is not which market is best in the abstract. It is which market is best for the way you run.
Where the requirement is not ordinary
Trade infrastructure
Foreign-Trade Zone and bonded warehouse eligibility screened where duty deferral or tariff exposure changes the math for import-heavy operations.
Site-level exposure
Wildfire, flood, seismic, and water exposure read at the site level, because insurers and lenders already read it that way.
Beyond the map line
Rail-served requirements screened against carrier access, spur condition, and switching realities, not just a line on a map.
From long list to defensible decision
Requirement + Constraints
The operating profile in full: throughput, headcount, power load, freight lanes, growth horizon, and the constraints that cannot flex.
Long List to Short List
Markets and sites screened against the gating variables first. Anything that fails on labor, power, or timeline exits early, before it consumes diligence budget.
Feasibility
The short list under real scrutiny: labor analytics, power studies, entitlement paths, incentive modeling, and total occupancy cost across each finalist.
Decision + Site Control
A recommendation with the tradeoffs shown, then negotiation and site control executed against the requirements that started the process.
Complexity
Power-heavy requirements, compressed timelines, multi-market screens, build-to-suit versus existing product decisions, and operations where the wrong site becomes expensive slowly and then suddenly.
Sometimes the answer is stay
Feasibility sometimes proves the current site out, and sometimes it proves a market out of the running, including our own. When the analysis says a market does not fit, that is the recommendation you will hear.
Asked before most engagements
How long does site selection take?
Existing product and build-to-suit run on different clocks. A screen of existing buildings can move in weeks. A build-to-suit with entitlements and power is a multi-year calendar. The timeline is set by the gating variables, which is why they are screened first.
Do you only work in Nevada?
No. Northern Nevada is home and the depth is deepest here. The same framework runs anywhere in the Western U.S., executed alongside trusted Cushman & Wakefield advisors in each market, with one accountable strategy lead.
How are you compensated?
Most site selection engagements are compensated through the transaction, the same structure as tenant representation. Where the work is advisory only, scope and fee are agreed before the work begins. Either way, the structure is clear up front.
Site selection starts with knowing the ground
The Northern Nevada market intelligence page is how the team reads its home market: ten submarkets with current vacancy, absorption, and rents, labor data from the team's own tracking, and drive-time reach, sourced and updated quarterly. The same read gets built for any market a client is screening. Read the Northern Nevada market
Tell us what the operation needs. We will tell you where it works.
Five selections. No contact forms, no gatekeeping: it opens as an email you control.
Opens in your email client, addressed to Amanda Eastwick, SIOR, CCIM. Edit anything before sending.
From the Ground Up
Occupier strategy, market movement, and the decisions in front of you. Once a month, no noise.
The best site is the one your operation proves out.
Bring the operating profile. The framework does the rest. Or build your Site Selection Brief above, and the first conversation starts at strategy. Build your Site Selection Brief
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