Case Studies

• Bloomberg:
   We have served as strategic advisor and exclusive incentives representative to Bloomberg for four years in connection with a wide range of location and project financing strategies, including the development and implementation of relocation and incentives strategies in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, the structuring and implementation of cost-saving financing arrangements and the coordination of development approvals. The recent projects include the design and negotiation of a unique equipment lease financing facility, providing for substantial sales tax savings, obtaining development approvals for a 1 million sf corporate campus, and representation of Bloomberg in connection with the company's new headquarters building in New York City.
   

• The Chubb Corporation:
  We were engaged by Chubb to evaluate potential incentives and negotiate business terms for multiple projects in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Texas. The largest and most complex of these projects has been in New Jersey, where we negotiated a multi-location package of incentives in connection with more than $400 million of capital investment in real estate, technology and other FF&E over a 20 year period, including improvements to the company’s headquarters and construction of a new 420,000 sf facility. This package, which was unprecedented in scale and flexibility, was valued at more than $20 million.
   

• Garban Intercapital:
  Garban is a major fixed income trading firm, formerly located in the World Trade Center, which engaged the team to assist with a planned relocation of 750 employees to Jersey City. The particular complexities surrounding this project involved the need to manage regional, political/governmental relationships during a period of enormous stress and uncertainty, and the negotiation of a reliable and flexible incentives package to assist the company with its rebuilding challenge in context of severe budget cuts and incentives program changes that threatened to significantly diminish the net realizable value of incentives available to the company. We worked closely with the company and the senior governmental leadership in New Jersey and New York to work out a substantial incentives package structured around the special uncertainties confronting this company.
   

• JP Morgan Chase: The firm has served JP Morgan Chase in a wide range of capacities over the past three years, including strategic planning, and the design and execution of complex multi-jurisdictional incentives negotiations for relocation of various business units, involving more than 5,000 employees and $500 million of capital investment. We also audited and restructured Chase’s existing incentives agreements, and implemented incentives reporting/compliance systems. This client relationship has called upon the firm to manage diverse incentives matters in Ohio, Florida, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Arizona and Louisiana. The firm's work for JP Morgan Chase has spanned the full range of tax and financing incentives, including real and personal property tax abatement, income/franchise tax credits and exemptions, sales tax lease financing, direct public sector grants and training cost reimbursements, as well as non-traditional incentives, such as development approvals.
   

• UBS/Paine Webber:
  BLS represented UBS/Paine Webber in connection with a project involving approximately one million square feet of office space and over 2,000 employees. We were successful in arranging for incentives in connection with a major improvement program for the company's existing facility in Weehawken, New Jersey for which no incentives had originally been obtained and for incentives to construct a new facility in the same location. During these efforts BLS obtained a sales tax exemption for certain technology purchases, notwithstanding the governing statute that appeared to forbid such inducements. Basing our strategy on a public policy argument that the statute is antiquated, duplicative and discouraged technology investment, the firm persuaded the New Jersey Economic Development Authority to create a transaction-specific vehicle to exempt the client's purchases from the sales tax. This initiative saved $13 million in sales taxes on $220 million in purchases during a 10-year period.
   

• Verizon Wireless:
  BLS has advised and assisted Verizon Wireless in diverse incentives matters throughout the U.S., including the development and implementation of an incentives strategy in connection with the company's regional and national headquarters operations and one it’s new of its customer service facilities. The Company reviewed a number of potential locations for these operations, including the PA, NJ and DE. The firm recently finalized a strategic incentive package in Pennsylvania and New Jersey which consisted of the expansion of the Company’s NJ headquarters operations, the retention and expansion of its existing regional headquarters facility PA and the construction of a new 110,000 square foot customer service facility in PA.
   

• Federal Express:
  The firm has recently worked with Federal Express to plan and implement an incentive strategy to support the company's siting of new state-of-the-art sorting and distribution facility to serve the Manhattan market. We were successful in negotiating an incentive package from the City of New York worth in excess of $13 million NPV, involving retention and growth of approximately 330 employees. This project also called upon us to structure and negotiate a complex lease agreement between the landlord/developer of the building and our client, including creating a "pass through" mechanism through which sales tax savings realized by the developer during construction would result in rent savings to FedEx, and overseeing the creation of a condominium unit for the FedEx portion of the building.
   

• Pearson Education:
  We have advised and assisted Pearson Education in connection with the company's national reorganization and restructuring of its warehouse and distribution operations. In the first engagement the firm positioned the relocation of regional warehouse/distribution operations to a major new facility in New Jersey as the catalyst for a broader transaction under which Pearson also received incentives for its new headquarters. In our second project the firm designed and executed a two-state competitive strategy involving the expansion of an existing Indiana distribution center or its relocation to Ohio. The result was a real property tax abatement, tax credits and training cost reimbursements for an enlarged (1.5 million square feet), next-generation warehouse facility in Lebanon, Indiana.