he wide variety of products in the stables of Illinois-based conglomerate Fortune Brands can make for an equally diverse project list.

In August 2009, its Simonton Windows business, driven in part by the success of federal consumer tax credits for energy-efficient products, asked a total of 402 employees laid off during the previous year to return to work at plants in West Virginia and Illinois, and is looking to hire 55 more. "The stimulative effect of the consumer tax credit means we are in a position to rehire employees in our manufacturing facilities, along with hiring additional seasonal workers during the third quarter," said Mark Savan, president of Simonton Windows.

In early October, Cruzan Rum, acquired by Fortune in September 2008, announced a blockbuster 30-year agreement with the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) that will sustain and expand rum production on St. Croix, while also continuing to direct excise taxes from rum sold in the U.S. toward economic development and human services on the islands. The $1-billion pact was due for review by the Virgin Islands legislature in late October, and follows a similarly lucrative agreement signed between Diageo and the VI government that could mean as much as $2.7 billion over the same 30-year term.

Under the Cruzan agreement, the Virgin Islands government commits to continue to share the cost of molasses, and will provide financing for the construction of a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant and to expand capacity of the Cruzan distillery in Frederiksted by more than 50 percent. Rum has been produced on the Cruzan site since 1760.

The agreement utilizes the rum excise tax "cover-over" program, an economic development tool which returns to the U.S. territories the excise taxes on locally produced rum sold in the United States. The program was established in 1917 and extended to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1954. Excise taxes are charged directly to the rum producer and are considered local territorial tax revenues. The USVI government anticipates the Cruzan expansion will double "cover-over" revenues from the current $90 million per year. The Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority also has $727 million in special revenue bonds supported by rum excise tax "cover-over" revenues. For more on this project, read the "Incentive Deal of the Month" online feature published Nov. 12, 2009.

ovember 2009 marks the retirement of Jim Dieter, SIOR, from his post as executive managing director of the Industrial Services Group at CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. after a 30-year career in commercial real estate.

Dieter is widely recognized as one of the top industrial real estate professionals in the industry. Under his direction during the past six years, CBRE's has become the market leader in industrial real estate services. In the Americas, CBRE Industrial Services comprises more than 950 professionals. In 2008, the group completed 8,175 sale and lease transactions in the Americas with a total value of $14.6 billion.

Dieter will be succeeded by Ed Schreyer, SIOR, formerly a senior vice president at CBRE and the leader of the Cincinnati Global Corporate Services team.

n September, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) awarded a LEED® Silver designation to the BASF Construction Chemicals – Building Systems headquarters and office/research complex located in Shakopee, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis. This is the first BASF building to earn LEED Certification and only the third building to earn LEED certification for Existing Buildings Operations & Maintenance in Minnesota.

"We believe in and support the movement to improve not only the quality of new construction, but also the performance of the existing building stock," said Doug MacRae, head of Building Systems for BASF Construction Chemicals. "As a supplier of products and solutions to this market, our decision to certify our building is an outward expression of our commitment, and has allowed us to more fully understand what it takes to participate in green and sustainable construction and renovation projects."

The building, originally constructed in 1972, has undergone three additions and one significant renovation. The current site occupies 283,304 sq. ft. (26,319 sq. m.), with a 50,879-sq.-ft. (4,727-sq.-m.) building footprint. Nearly 100 people are employed at the site, which is home to the management, R&D, marketing, communications, customer service, technical, finance and other service/support functions of the business.

merica's hidden advantage in the new world economy will be its "post-ethnic future," noted demographer and writer Joel Kotkin told IAMC.

The author of "The City: A Global History," Kotkin said that two trends, more so than others, will shape the future direction of the U.S. economy: regional immigration patterns and the movement of buying power from cities to suburbs.

Addressing IAMC during the luncheon session Oct. 7 in Minneapolis, Minn., Kotkin gave Professional Forum attendees a glimpse of what's to come in a presentation titled "Looking Ahead: A Cash Economy, Immigration and the Future of the Country."

The three most important global trends to watch, he said, were these:

″ Growing economic and financial power in the developing world.

″ Growing influence of Asian, Middle Eastern and Latin immigrants in local economies.

″ U.S. emergence as the world center of a post-racial economy.

"The U.S. has healthier long-term demographics than most of its competitors," said Kotkin. "The U.S. is the only advanced country with a large, growing population. North America has the second largest energy resource base in the world; and our economic system is the most resilient among advanced countries."

The U.S. is growing faster than all other developed nations primarily for two reasons: higher birth rates among the native population and higher rates of immigration.

Also driving economic growth will be America's advantages in both land area and buildings. "We have 180 million acres of arable land in this country – the most of any nation in the world," said Kotkin. "That is an enormous resource. At the same time, by 2030, half of the buildings in which Americans live, work and shop will have been built after 2000. The oldest building stock ever in the U.S. is the one we have now."

The result of this aging inventory is obvious, he noted: the U.S. must construct more buildings, and that will add even more economic growth.

Still, he said, immigration will dwarf farming and construction in overall impact on the economy. "Our post-ethnic future will be our hidden advantage in the new world economy, as immigrants drive the next 100 million population growth by 2050," Kotkin said. "Immigration is driving American demography. In 1990, we had 19.8 million foreign-born people in this country. By 2002, that number had increased to 32.6 million."

At the current rates of population and immigration growth, the U.S. will become a "majority minority" country by 2050, said Kotkin. "California, Texas and New Mexico are already majority-minority states. But the new Hispanic magnet states can be found in the Southeast and Central Plains. They are states like Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota and Kansas."

The fastest-growing Hispanic markets in the U.S. right now are, in order, Greensboro, N.C.; Charlotte; Raleigh, N.C.; and Atlanta.

"Forty percent of immigrants move directly to the suburbs," Kotkin said. "The San Fernando Valley in California is now the Mestizo Valley. Fort Bend County, Texas, is 21 percent Hispanic, 21 percent African American, 12 percent Asian and 41 percent white. The diversity of Houston's fastest-growing suburbs will increase."

What does this mean for the economy? Kotkin said to expect the following trends:

″ Fast-growing retail markets among ethnic groups and immigrant communities.

″ A new generation of homeowners and entrepreneurs, led by multi-racial Millennials and their parents.

″ Powerful ties to emerging economies in Latin America and Asia.

"If the U.S. ethnic purchasing power was represented separately, it would be the sixth largest national economy in the world," Kotkin said. "If the U.S. Hispanic purchasing power was represented separately, it would be the largest Latin American economy."

At $653 billion in 2003, U.S. Hispanic buying power surpassed that of Mexico ($626 billion). "Ethnic purchasing power in the U.S. has more than doubled since 1990," said Kotkin. By 2009, total ethnic buying power in the U.S. had topped $2.5 trillion.

To illustrate his point, Kotkin showed a slide of the top 10 homebuyer surnames in California. Only two were not Hispanic or Asian.

"The Millennial Generation is the most diverse in American history," he added. "Millennials, those ages 25 to 34, are the largest single group of homebuyers in America, and we are finding that increasingly these households are the product of a mixed-race marriage. In fact, mixed-race is now the fastest-growing designation in the country."

Kotkin told IAMC that "what it means to be an American will change. People will hold onto their culture, but they will become more American. The American culture is a globalized culture. It is open and unsupervised. America has always been based on economic optimism and growth, and that will not change."

For his final predictions, he offered these thoughts:

″ America's ethnic orientation will be radically different in a generation.

″ Latino, Middle Eastern and Asian influences will increasingly impact America's cultural life.

″ "Americanness" will remain a key factor driving immigrants toward citizenship as a more diverse U.S. becomes more, not less dependent on united aspects of a national culture.

"They are us," he said, "or soon will be."

— Ron Starner