Detroit-based Walbridge, a full-service construction company, appointed Greg Burkart, principal of site selection services within the company’s Real Estate Services Group. He reports to Walbridge Executive Vice President Randy Abdallah.
In his new role, Burkart leads the development and growth of Walbridge’s site selection services where he works closely with existing and new customers interested in onshoring business from overseas or expanding their national footprint. Burkart’s extensive site selection experience coupled with Walbridge’s world-class design and construction expertise allows the team to identify the best location based on current market data and leading industry trends.
Burkart also is responsible for securing new customers in emerging markets and developing relationships with various state and regional economic development agencies. He collaborates frequently with industry veteran and long-time Walbridge consultant Dennis Cuneo, using his expertise in government relations and incentive negotiations.
“Our real estate team supports customers with a variety of services and offers practical and actionable advice throughout the process — from identifying and assessing sites for construction readiness, workforce availability, and utility capacity to incentive negotiations and compliance,” says John Rakolta III, president of Walbridge. “We ease the burden of finding a site that meets our customer’s specific project needs while helping to reduce time to build and development costs.”
Burkart has more than 25 years of site selection experience partnering with the public sector to benefit communities and corporate clients and has direct experience in 46 states as well as Latin America and Europe. Most recently, he was executive vice president of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership leading economic development operations. Prior to that, Burkart was the managing director and practice lead for site selection and incentives advisory services at Kroll.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., and a JD from the St. Louis University School of Law in Missouri. Burkart was co-chair of the Site Selectors’ Guild Credentialing Task Force, a member of the Institute for Professionals in Taxation, an adjunct faculty member at Michigan State University and past president of the Detroit Chapter of the Federalist Society.
