• COVER PAGE

  • MOTOWN RULES

  • 1998 PROPORTIONAL
  PERSPECTIVES

  • METHODOLOGY

  • NEW CORPORATE
 FACILITIES AND
 EXPANSIONS

  • THE LONG VIEW:
 MICHIGAN

  • 1999 FORECAST

  • 1998 TOP 20
 U.S. FACILITIES

High tech, big cars and big money: That summarizes the dominant sectors among 1998's 20 biggest U.S. facility announcements.

1998's biggest U.S. facility investment, for example, came from NEC Electronics' US$1.4 billion expansion of its Roseville, Calif., PC plant. In job generation, Cisco Systems' new, 6,000-employee PC peripherals plant in San Jose, Calif., tied for No. 1. UPS' new Louisville, Ky., hub matched that 6,000-employee mark and ranked as 1998's No. 1 in sheer space, spanning a whopping 2.7 million sq. ft. (251,000 sq. m.).

As usual, the top 20 capital investments were dominated by high tech, with nine, and the auto industry, with five.

Consolidation Writ Large

Far less usual was finance's prominence among '98's U.S. giants. Reflecting rapid consolidation, finance/insurance accounted for 60 percent of '98's top 20 job generators, including USAA's 4,000-employee expansion in San Antonio, Texas, which ranked No. 3, closely followed by Deutsche Bank's 3,600-employee New York City expansion and Associates of North America's new, 3,500-employee facility in Irving, Texas.

Predictably, mammoth distribution centers ruled '98's biggest U.S. facilities, with the Gap's 2.4-million-sq.-ft. (223,000-sq.-m.) Fishkill, N.Y, center ranked No 2. Less predictably, finance/insurance supplied five of the top 20 space eaters.

Finally, 1998 marked the Internet's coming-out party in SS's annual review of U.S. giants. MCI WorldCom's expansion of its Loudoun County, Va., Internet access and services operation will create 4,000 jobs, 1998's No. 3 tally; and America OnLine's new, $500 million service operation in Smyrna, Ga., is '98's No. 6 investment. Clearly, cyberspace and physical space are coalescing in very big ways.     --Jack Lyne