Railroad Location Strategy
For decades, our firm has been tapped to find the world’s best sites for global corporations, and we also leverage this knowledge for rail providers in the U.S. GLS can become an extension of your team—working with you to maximize your rail system’s competitiveness for industrial development projects.
Our niche expertise in complex, resource-intensive projects means that we have evaluated thousands of rail-served sites from coast to coast. We understand the needs of capital-intensive, rail-dependent projects, and are uniquely capable of positioning your rail system for growth.
Contact us today to learn more about our services.
“GLS has been a critical partner to CSX in helping identify, evaluate, and ultimately improve properties to which CSX seeks to provide rail access for future industry. As part of CSX’s Select Site program, we have had the luxury of leaning on GLS’s broad knowledge and experience within the site selection environment—providing us and landowners with insights that result in a higher success rate of attracting new industry. Their team takes a hands-on approach, and we’re truly grateful for their partnership.”
– Kellen Riley, Senior Director of Business Development
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Quickly Assess a Site’s Potential
Our Quick Assess provides a condensed site evaluation, offering a comprehensive site profile, regional insights, and industry overview to a deliver preliminary, data-driven overview of a site. Our process includes virtual meetings with site representatives, information evaluation, and an executive summary, thus enabling swift and informed decisions.
Identify New Investment-Ready Sites
Identify new industrial sites along your rail system to attract investment from your targeted use types. Using our cutting-edge geospatial and heat mapping technology, we identify parcels within your rail system that have the highest potential to be competitive industrial sites.
Site Readiness
Our site readiness assessment provides an understanding of the baseline marketability of your sites. GLS helps you identify your site’s investment readiness through an analysis of the major and sub-criteria factors that are vital to industrial site selection projects.
Once a baseline analysis is completed, we provide recommended improvements to elevate your site’s competitiveness.
Click here to see how we assisted North Carolina Railroad with their Build Ready Sites program.
Position your industrial site for success by engaging GLS to review and evaluate your long-term planning efforts. Our Site Audit service provides you with objective feedback and actionable, strategic recommendations.
Click here to see how we performed site audits to assist Entergy Mississippi.
While a site may be well-suited for investment, the site must also prove itself more attractive than sites it will compete with for investment projects. We leverage our proprietary database of sites worldwide, as well as our corporate location decision-making model, to help you understand exactly where you are falling short or exceeding in the site selection process.
The result is a comprehensive view of your site and community from the perspective of a locating business, including areas where you excel and opportunities for improvement. These findings can then inform the development of a business case for your targeted industries and prioritize any necessary investments into your site.
Below is a sample dashboard GLS developed showcasing North Carolina Railroad’s Build Ready Sites Program
Reverse Site Selection
Give new life to unique or abandoned assets. GLS leverages decades of experience siting rail-served projects to reverse-engineer the site selection process. We evaluate factors including site developability, logistics infrastructure, utility infrastructure, and workforce characteristics to make prioritized recommendations for the best use of local properties. Your team can use those insights to develop a targeted business case for potential investors.
Other Unique Assets
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You know railroads. And we know what the market is looking for. Let’s talk.
Our Projects
CSX provides rail, intermodal, and rail-to-truck transload services and solutions to customers across a broad array of markets. The company partnered with GLS to identify prime sites for future industrial development with its newly revamped Select Sites program.
The North Carolina Railroad Company is a private corporation which manages the use of 317 miles of track stretching from Charlotte to the Port of Morehead City. The company partnered with GLS to develop a site readiness program to enhance the state’s portfolio of available, rail-served sites.
Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company are regulated utilities that serve more than 90 counties across Kentucky and Virginia. The companies enlisted GLS to perform a site identification search throughout its territory. The goal of this search was to identify new potential sites that could support economic development recruitment efforts.
Entergy Mississippi, a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, provides electricity to customers in 45 counties across the state of Mississippi. Entergy enlisted GLS to perform site audits for two properties: the Northwest Mississippi Mega Site and the Tunica County Mega Site.