As the old adage goes, “What are the 3 most important things in real estate? Answer: location, location, location!” But this is more than just a matter of finding the right neighborhood in order to maximize real estate value and investment return. We’re also talking about your business’s location in relationship to your customers, and the assets that will get your product to them in a timely, cost-effective manner. Location is paramount when considering moving or expanding your business, regardless of whether you’re in manufacturing, distribution or agriculture.
To put an even finer point on the matter, according to Area Development Magazine, the #2 most important site-selection factor to businesses in deciding where to locate a business, is access to major highways. Getting your product to customers in the most efficient means possible, could be the difference between success and failure of your business. (The #1 site selection factor, by the way, is access to talent, followed by access to highways, quality of life, cost of construction/occupancy, available buildings, labor costs, tax rates, proximity to major markets, incentives, and energy availability.)
If you are attempting to distribute state-wide, locate near a major intersection or hub of interstate highways, there are a limited number of such centralized, well-accessed locations in most states. The Central-Florida region provides just such a transportation hub location, in Sumter County, at the junction of Interstate 75 and Florida’s Turnpike, intersected by CSX Rail, with access to five Florida deep water ports, and about an hour from three international airports—Sumter County serves as an ideal Central Florida location for distributing goods throughout the state, across the country, and around the globe.
(To learn more about Area Development Magazine’s Site Selection Factors and Strategy, visit them here.)