ATC Opens Facility in Fort Worth

ATC Logistics and Electronics has opened a 375,000-square-foot wireless handset returns, testing and repair operation next to its existing facilities in Fort Worth. The expansion has resulted in 500 new jobs. The deal is a result of ATC's expanded business relationship with RadioShack, T-Mobile, Cingular and Nokia.

JW Aluminum Expands in Arkansas

JW Aluminum has announced a new melting and casting operation at the company's aluminum rolling facility in Russellville, Ark. The expansion will enable the company to increase production of aluminum sheet and foil from 12 million pounds a year to 120 million pounds. The expansion is expected to create about 85 new jobs.

Caremark Rx Opening Center in Nashville

Caremark Rx, Inc., a pharmacy benefits manager, announced in June plans to open a large customer care center in Nashville. The center will receive calls from participants in benefit plans provided by corporate employers, health plans and governmental agencies. The call center will be capable of handling 350,000 calls a month and will house about 600 people.

EADS Picks Mobile

Mobile, Ala.'s Brookley Industrial Complex, the former Brookley Air Force Base, was the winner in the EADS North America site search. The European aerospace and aviation company chose Mobile over a site at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, North Charleston, S.C. and Melbourne, Fla. EADS, an acronym for Paris-based European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., is the parent company of plane maker Airbus. The new deal is expected to create about 1,200 jobs in the Alabama Gulf Coast region.

Grant Forest Products Investing $400 Million in South Carolina

Grant Forest Products, a provider of engineered wood panel products, announced in June it will invest more than $400 million in South Carolina by building two manufacturing plants and creating about 250 jobs in Allendale and Clarendon counties. The Canada-based company said locally grown timber will be used at both facilities. About 125 jobs will be created at the two news plants which will produce oriented strand board (OSB) panels. OSB is used in construction as an alternative to plywood.

What Happened to the Chip Plants?

Texas Instruments was the last company to announce a new computer chip plant in the South and that was in 2003. You may remember that in the mid-1990s fabs were the rage as every state in the South positioned themselves to prep sites and pass new legislation in order to recruit the high-tech, high-paying monster plants. A couple of fabs were announced in Virginia at the time (only one was built) and there were some expansions in Texas and North Carolina to go along with TI's new plant in Dallas. But for all practical purposes, almost all of the work to recruit new semiconductor facilities by states in the South over the last 10 years has been a waste of time. But where have those semiconductor plants gone? Well, they've gone offshore and even China has benefited. In fact, 20 new fabs are expected to be built in China by 2008.

Babbling about Project Pine Tree is Baffling Us

Editorial

It's been a long time since a large project targeting the South has been kept as confidential as Project Pine Tree has. The big deal in the works has been public for more than six months now and it seems no one but the consultant, KPMG, knows the company's name. The assumption is the deal is an automaker and just about everyone is speculating the company is KIA.

In the last edition of Southern Business & Development and on SouthernAutoCorridor.com we wrote: "Project Pine Tree is a large deal that's out there right now. Pine Tree is a project that requires an East Coast port, which means a European automaker. We've heard sites have been narrowed down to one in S.C., one in north Alabama, Chattanooga, and Savannah. If you recall, the site in Savannah (Pooler, Ga.) was the site DaimlerChrysler bailed out on two years ago for a truck plant. We believe Project Pine Tree is a renewal of the DaimlerChrysler deal, but one that will build cars and SUVs not commercial trucks. Then again, Pine Tree could be Audi and not DC. Regardless, it's a dadgum auto assembly plant."

After we wrote that DaimlerChrysler was most likely Project Pine Tree, the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Walt Wood took our story further and revealed in that newspaper on April 14, 2005 that DC was working on a project and that Georgia and the automaker could not come to terms to land the deal at the site in Savannah. Wood's story was impressive in that he revealed the two parties were $22 million apart and that the state of Georgia and local Savannah officials did not want to chop up the Pooler site for a much smaller than original DaimlerChrysler assembly plant. The project still has not been announced by DaimlerChrysler. But one thing we do know, DC is not Project Pine Tree. However, we were the first to reveal that DaimlerChrysler's truck plant project that was snuffed out two years ago was renewed again in the winter of 2005. We were also the first source to put the words “Project Pine Tree” in print.

Here's what we do know about Project Pine Tree as of June 22

* KPMG officials have visited the four short-listed sites we published back in March, but after that they also visited a site near Crestview, Fla., and one in northeast Louisiana.

* A Florida economic development official and economic developers in Alabama admitted to us that they worked together in an effort to land an automaker in Crestview, Fla., an unprecedented event. It was unprecedented in that one state was willing to pony up dollars to land a deal in another state. But from what we can gather, that effort is dead. That project was most likely KIA, since Crestview makes logistical sense as a location for the Korean automaker.

* There is no indication from any source that the state of Mississippi is in the mix for Project Pine Tree. There is also no indication that, since Project Pine Tree is not DaimlerChrysler, sites in Georgia are in the game either.

Here's what we question about any of that information:

* If Project Pine Tree is indeed KIA, as the majority of folks think it is, then why aren't sites in Mississippi and sites in west Georgia such as Columbus or LaGrange under consideration? KIA, for all practical purposes, is joined at the hip with Hyundai. Hyundai's new plant is located just south of downtown Montgomery, Ala., and virtually all of its suppliers are located in Alabama, specifically central and south Alabama. If KIA is to use many of those same suppliers, which they must, why then are sites in Chattanooga (having to drive through Chattanooga, Birmingham and Montgomery metros) and north Alabama (having to drive through Birmingham and Montgomery metros) on the short list?

* And what about the reports that Louisiana is now in the mix and the old information that Savannah and South Carolina made the short list? If it's KIA and those three are really in the site search game, then KIA officials need to get a better map than the pocket Rand McNally version they are using.

*Again, and we can't stress this more. Why aren't sites in Mississippi in on the short list for what most everyone believes is Project Pine Tree? After all, it was Mississippi U.S. Sen. Trent Lott who went public a year-and-a-half ago when he said something to the effect "KIA is the next automaker to land in the Southern Auto Corridor and Mississippi is going to get it."

* On paper, the perfect site for KIA is the one in Opelika, Ala., a site less than an hour away from Hyundai's facility in Montgomery and Opelika is already home to several Korean suppliers. However, we understand that site didn't make the original short list and we believe it's because Alabama is not willing to ante up the total incentive package for KIA.

* That's another reason we question Project Pine Tree is indeed KIA. Limestone County, Ala., apparently made Pine Tree's short list even though it's a poor location compared to others in Mississippi and Georgia in a geographic relationship to existing Korean suppliers operating in south Alabama. And again we question, why is Limestone County/Athens, Ala. on the short list for KIA if the state of Alabama apparently will not fund the entire incentive package for another Korean automaker?

* Most people believe Project Pine Tree is Korean automaker KIA. But almost all of the sites that have passed our desk make no sense for KIA.

Let's review:

* Sites that make sense for KIA: Crestview, Fla., Opelika, Ala.

* Sites that kind of make sense, but not really, for KIA of the sites Project Pine Tree has apparently visited: Limestone County, Ala.; Chattanooga

* Sites that make no sense for KIA of the sites Project Pine Tree has apparently visited: Savannah, South Carolina, northeast Louisiana

* Sites that make perfect sense for KIA of the sites Project Pine Tree has not visited: Meridian, Columbus and Tupelo, Miss., LaGrange and Columbus, Ga., Atmore, Ala.

Conclusion

We think Project Pine Tree should be plural, or Project Pine Trees. With this diverse group of sites that make sense for one automaker, but not so for another, maybe KPMG is working two automakers at the same time. For example, German automaker Audi could certainly land in north Alabama, Chattanooga, Savannah or a site in South Carolina or Louisiana. Those sites are logistical possibilities for Audi and make up the bulk of the sites that Project Pine Tree had on its original short list.

On the other hand, KIA will likely land near a border of south or central Alabama, but in another state. Again, some of the sites apparently visited by Project Pine Tree don't make any sense for KIA. The fact that no Mississippi or Georgia sites have been mentioned (other than Savannah and KIA will never land in Savannah) tells us that Project Pine Tree is not KIA. We now believe Project Pine Tree is a German automaker, either Audi or BMW.

Here's another thought. Project Pine Tree is the best kept secret since the Mercedes-Benz project in 1993. In fact, the day before Mercedes announced in the fall of '93, a couple of newspapers actually printed stories that the project was going to Mebane, N.C. It went to Vance, Ala. We don't believe KIA officials could keep their site search a secret for six months. On the other hand, the last time an automaker kept a project under wraps like this was a German automaker - Mercedes.

We would like to write that Southern Business & Development, parent company to www.SouthernAutoCorridor.com, www.sb-d.com and www.BioIndustrySouth.com, has successfully predicted the location of every auto assembly plant announced in the Southern Auto Corridor since Mercedes except for one. The one we missed was Honda, but at least we got the state right. We even predicted Hyundai was going to Montgomery nine months before the official announcement.

Regardless of our accuracy in picking auto assembly plant sites in the South over the years, we were wrong on this Project Pine Tree when we speculated it was DaimlerChrysler back in March. But we also wrote it could be Audi. Whoever it is, this is the last time we will babble about Project Pine Tree until we get more credible information. Because the more we babble about Project Pine Tree, the more baffling it becomes.

Mike Randle
mike@sb-d.com