Psst, Vermont Castings. Wanna Buy
a High-tech Warehouse?

This Is a True Story... So I needed a new gasket for my wood stove.  (Don't laugh; Pacific Gas & Electricity, our local utility, just filed for bankruptcy.)  Naturally, I first checked the Vermont Castings web site, which is pretty uninspiring.  Really nothing more than a brochure online.  Hello.  So I drove to my local dealer, who looked up the part number in a huge paper binder and then hand wrote (!) an order, which should be filled in "one to two weeks."  So much for 21st-century supply chain management.  What a waste of time for everybody -- the customer, the local merchant and the manufacturer. 

Here's an idea.  Why doesn't Vermont Castings sublease or buy one of the many high-tech distribution centers developed for one of the dot-coms?  According to the Industry Standard (March 19, 2001), Amazon.com, eToys, Toysrus.com and WebVan all have warehouses available.  For example, Amazon.com has 800,000 square feet for sublease in McDonough (Atlanta), GA at $2.75 per square foot per year net ($2.2 million) -- not including the equipment.  The lengthy equipment list fills two typed pages and includes storage, conveyor and sortation systems -- for example, 42,760 pickable locations, over 11 miles of linear feet of conveyors, and 944 trays and 2,182 destination chutes.  Well, maybe this is overkill for Vermont Castings. 

Amazon is represented by Wilma Warshak (Seattle) and Bill Buist (Atlanta) of Colliers International, who also represented Amazon in the original lease with First Industrial Realty Trust.  Warshak tells me that the key decision maker for this type of facility is the operations manager, not the real estate manager.  And, believe it or not, one of the selling features of the Amazon space is that "it actually works because Amazon used it."  Warshak also pointed out that there are big differences between distribution systems designed for individual customers versus stores.  

Julie Benezet, Director of Real Estate for Amazon will speak at the PikeNet Forum on May 3 in San Francisco, and I'm sure that she'll have some amazing real estate stories.  Other speakers on the Corporate Perspective Roundtable include David Clute, Manager of E-Solutions at Cisco; Robert Patterson, SVP-CRE at Bank of America; and John Amend, CEO, WorkPlaceUSA. ... Full program online.

--Peter / ppike@pikenet.com