Brought to you by Barber Business Advisors, LLC.  We help communities become better places for business and companies find better places for doing business. We impact people's lives.

A New Alliance 

DALLAS (Oct. 7) –- Barber Business Advisors, LLC, and Context Design Group, PLLC, have agreed to a strategic partnership in which the two firms will jointly collaborate and offer corporate location analysis to companies worldwide.

BBA, which provides economic development consulting services to communities and site selection consulting services to companies, is based in Dallas. Based in Greenville, S.C., Context Design Group provides industrial planning and design services to corporate clients.

“This alliance between BBA and Context Design Group makes a lot of sense because now we are able to offer more and better services to companies that are looking to expand in new locations. We can also help economic development organizations that need a newly designed industrial park,” said Dean Barber, principal at BBA.

David Lewis, who founded Context Design Group in 2002, said the synergies created by the alliance create a greater and new dimension 

“Dean and his team at BBA help communities become more competitive but they also help companies with site selection, while we at Context Design offer process-focused design. Using proven programming techniques, we help our clients visualize and understand how a future facility could look and operate on any given site.”

Lewis and Barber first met in 2001 when Barber was working at the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, and Lewis was involved in the design of the Hyundai assembly plant in Montgomery, Ala.

“It became clear to me when I first met Dave that he had a deep understanding of manufacturing processes and industrial design. His knowledge and experience in the automotive sector impressed me going back to 1992 when he was the lead architect for Simons Engineering on the BMW plant in Greer. S.C., which says a lot.” Barber said.

“In the years since, we've worked together on projects in the Southeast, Detroit and in Mexico. Dave gets the ‘big picture’ objectives of his clients. He is totally mindful of both the utilitarian and the aesthetic requirements.”

Lewis said Barber’s general knowledge of business and manufacturing impressed him.

“When I first met Dean, I soon realized that he was a different kind of economic developer. He’s a former business journalist, and he’s not afraid to ask the hard questions, which is a strength for any consultant. He's also worked in manufacturing plants,” Lewis said.

Lewis and Barber agreed that companies needing site location analysis now have access to a combined team with different abilities and strengths.

“At BBA, we’ve primarily focused our efforts in serving economic development organizations. That's going to continue,” Barber said. “But now we have this new added dimension that we can offer companies with site selection. It makes so much sense for us to partner with Context Design Group.”

“More is better,” Lewis said. “Breadth of experience matters. Our alliance will create greater value, and that's what it's all about.”  

Understanding Site Readiness by Dean Barber

We all instinctively know there is no one place perfect for business. Different businesses have different wants and needs, which means certain places will be better than others.

A preferred location can serve as a safe harbor or haven for a business. It’s here where the risks have been reduced, often because of the intentional result of policy. One of BBA's core missions is to help communities become betters place for business. A better business climate attracts capital investment resulting in job creation.

Our other core mission is site selection -- helping companies find better places for doing business.

Just as a donkey or a mule is not a racehorse, so too is raw land not a site. The good news, however, is that raw land can often become a viable site with proper due diligence and investment.

In a world of mice and men, it is not uncommon that construction projects experience costly delays because something went wrong. The obstacles can be environmental studies, soil borings, zoning and building code regulations, wetlands studies, floodplain mapping, and the lack of utility infrastructure. In short, raw land is a risky proposition.

Doing the preliminary work to convert raw land into a site before a potential user arrives on the scene gives an economic development organization a huge competitive edge during the site selection process.  If a site has been made ready to go,  a prospective user has a fast track to getting a building completed and operations started. That can save a company millions of dollars. The old adage that time is money is true and bankable.

BBA offers economic development organizations, utilities and railroads, a comprehensive and robust site certification program that can serve as a marketing tool, showing, proving, documenting that risks have been ameliorated on a particular site. 

I recently gave a webinar, hosted by the Golden Shovel Agency, called "Site Certification: "Mitigating Risk Through Documentation." If you missed it, you can watch it here. If you would like a copy of my PowerPoint, drop me a line at dbarber@barberadvisors.com, and I'll get it to you.

Of course, site certification is just one of a number of services at BBA that we offer to economic development organizations. What's important to you is important to us. We're here to help.