Competition is leverage
Jurisdictions sharpen their offers when they know they're competing. A structured multi-state process consistently produces stronger economics than negotiating one location at a time.
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Site Selection
Consulting.
Where you locate decides more than any other decision you'll make this decade.
Vista guides companies through the full location decision — from "where should we even be looking?" to a negotiated, board-approved site. Data-backed market screening, occupation-level labor analysis, and incentive leverage, run by one integrated team from day one.
Why Hire a Consultant
You'll make this decision once. We make it every week.
What a structured process buys you that going it alone can't.
Data beats anecdote
Every market pitches itself well. We test the pitch against 1,400+ variables and 2.9 million hex cells covering the entire U.S. — labor, cost, logistics, risk — before you commit.
Confidentiality protects you
Premature disclosure moves land prices, wages, and politics. Code-named projects and controlled outreach keep your leverage — and your plans — intact until you're ready.
Integration kills handoffs
Site strategy, incentives, and analytics operate as one team. The labor analysis informs the negotiation; the negotiation informs the shortlist. No silos, no drift.
What We Deliver
One team. One engine.
Site strategy, incentives, and analytics — integrated from day one. No handoffs. No silos.
Market screening & location strategy
A structured funnel from "anywhere" to a defensible shortlist — regions, states, and communities scored against what your operation actually needs.
Workforce & labor analysis
Occupation-level supply, wages, competition, and turnover risk for every candidate market. Can this location staff your operation? We answer it with data.
Site & building evaluation
Real estate, utilities, entitlement, and readiness screening — the difference between available land and a real project candidate.
Total cost & risk modeling
Operating cost, one-time cost, and downside scenarios modeled early — so the finalist comparison reflects reality, not brochures.
Incentive negotiation
Competitive negotiations across finalist jurisdictions, structured to survive audits, ramp changes, and the life of the agreement.
Board-ready decision support
Scoring matrices, executive summaries, and decision memos that let leadership see, defend, and approve the recommendation.
How We Work
Four phases. Zero drift.
Phase 01
Frame the decision
Requirements, deal-breakers, occupations, timeline, and success criteria — locked before the map gets drawn.
Phase 02
Model the markets
Screen broadly, score consistently, kill weak options early. The shortlist earns its place with data.
Phase 03
Shape the incentives
Run finalists against each other. Model the downside. Lock economics that hold up after the announcement.
Phase 04
Execute confidently
Diligence, agreements, and announcement strategy — then compliance management for the life of the deal.
Questions, Answered
Site Selection FAQ
What does a site selection consultant do?
A site selection consultant runs the location decision as a structured process: defining requirements, screening markets with data, analyzing workforce and costs, shortlisting sites, negotiating incentives, and supporting execution. The value is discipline and leverage — decisions grounded in evidence rather than sales pitches, and incentive packages produced by real competition between jurisdictions.
When should we engage a site selection consultant?
Ideally 18 to 24 months before you need to be operational, and always before you've signaled a preferred location. Incentive leverage is highest while the outcome is genuinely undecided, and workforce, utility, and entitlement timelines run longer than most project plans assume.
How is Vista different from a real estate brokerage?
Brokerages are built around transactions; Vista is built around the decision. We're a strategy, analytics, and incentives firm — an ancillary business of the law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease — with a proprietary data platform and an economist-led impact practice. We work upstream of the transaction, where the leverage and the risk actually live.
How long does a site selection project take?
A disciplined process typically runs three to nine months from kickoff to a negotiated finalist, depending on project complexity. The long poles are usually external — utility confirmation, entitlement, and incentive approvals — which is why we start those threads during screening rather than after it.
Do you work across the entire United States?
Yes. Vista has supported more than 1,000 projects across 40+ states, and our data platform covers every market in the country at the hex-cell level. We're based in Columbus, Ohio, and work wherever the project needs to go.
How do you keep our project confidential?
Projects run under code names with controlled, staged outreach. Jurisdictions and utilities learn what they need to compete — not who you are — until disclosure serves your leverage. Confidentiality isn't a courtesy in this work; it's a negotiating position.
Go Deeper
Making a location decision?
Tell us what you're building and when it needs to be running. We'll show you how a structured process changes the economics.