How Bedrock Uses Emsi Data for Evidence-Based Site Selection

Overview

Bedrock, known as a leader in development, and as Detroit’s premier private real estate company, is transforming the role that labor market data and research plays in attracting new and exciting tenants to regions. Using Emsi data, Bedrock creates a baseline business case for why it makes sense (or, in some cases, doesn’t make sense) for companies to choose a location.

Detroit is becoming a mobility hub

Detroit earned its moniker as the Motor City for its century-long dedication to being the global epicenter for automotive assets, manufacturing infrastructure, and designing and building world-class vehicles. Beyond the city’s limits, the Detroit metro area consists of three counties: Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb. Two of those three counties – Wayne and Macomb – have been No. 1 and No. 3 in job growth in manufacturing nationwide since 2010.

As the automotive industry has flourished in Detroit, the region is simultaneously becoming known as a hub for the mobility industry. Labor market information reveals that along with the growth in traditional manufacturing jobs, Detroit’s economy is evolving into a technology magnet that incorporates high-tech design, engineering, communication features, and connected technologies that support the advent of smart and autonomous vehicles. The result is an explosion of demand and jobs for technology experts in the region.

With this continued evolution, Bedrock – which manages more than 110 properties and 18 million square feet of real estate in and around Detroit’s Central Business District as well as Cleveland, OH – has turned to Emsi. Emsi uses the most up-to-date labor data and research to help answer questions about which businesses are going to need space and what kind of space is most relevant to the work these businesses are doing.

Emsi’s role in evidence-based site selection for Bedrock

Nick Posavetz

Bedrock actively uses Emsi to provide labor market information and insights into historic and future market trends. The company works in conjunction with community partners, city leaders, and state and local experts to help revitalize the region through business development. Nick Posavetz, who leads market research at Bedrock, has been utilizing Emsi data since 2012. He uses data he collects from Emsi to highlight Metro Detroit’s strengths and business needs, which aids in Bedrock’s pitches to prospective tenants.

“My original exposure to Emsi came through a prior role in economic development, where I used Emsi data to guide workforce development initiatives and help market an entire region,” Posavetz said.

“Here at Bedrock, we have incorporated Emsi data into supporting our business development efforts. The ability to demonstrate compelling data puts muscle and meaning behind our compelling narrative as we recruit prospective tenants.”

Providing a roadmap for sourcing talent

For Bedrock’s potential tenants, it has been useful to know the depth of the talent pool available. Emsi data has been a successful tool in helping to bring new companies to the region and providing a road map for how they can source their talent to achieve success.

“Our region is a recognized leader in manufacturing. But having the ability to highlight our growth in industries like finance and software development to potential tenants allows us to deliver a comprehensive, data-driven presentation that shows just how viable our region is for these industries. The Detroit metro area’s competitive wages, existing talent supply, established network of existing companies, and robust education pipeline are very persuasive. To have this data past, present, and predictive is an immensely valuable tool,” Posavetz said.

With data and evidence-based site selection, economic development is becoming less of a pseudo-science because it leverages hard numbers and facts about documented results. Having access to Emsi data removes the need to navigate less-pointed research methods and aggregated labor market information across sources like the BLS, Census, American FactFinder, and the five-year farm agricultural commodity census. With Emsi, Bedrock has access to 90 different data sources in one robust research platform called Developer. (See the video below for a scroll-through of the Economy Overview, one of the most popular reports in Developer.)

“Emsi aggregates the data in a way that is easy to access, consume, and embed into our research objectives. Internally, this data allows us to support a variety of our core business functions such as leasing, development, acquisitions, finance, tenant relations, hospitality, and human resources,” Posavetz said.