NC Governor Appeals to President Bush

Gov. Mike Easley sent a personal appeal in August to the President asking again for help for the struggling textile industry in North Carolina. Easley sent an e-mail to the President, which included a video message from 10 former employees who had worked at Pillowtex from 10 to 25 years. In August, Pillowtex announced that it was filing for bankruptcy, closing its facilities and terminating over 6,000 employees. More than 4,000 workers were employed in North Carolina. "I wanted President Bush to hear directly from the people that are impacted by these destructive federal trade policies," said Easley. "These people have given their lives to ensuring that the 'Made in America' label is synonymous with quality and now they need our help."

Easley has written to the Bush administration on nine occasions asking that trade policies be revisited to stop the exportation of jobs overseas. Since 2001, North Carolina has lost 50,000 textile jobs due to federal trade policies. Specifically, Easley is asking that the U.S. Trade Representative do the following:

* Start aggressively combating the widespread dumping of textile goods on U.S. markets

* Address the failure of trading partners to open their markets to our products

* Devote sufficient resources to fight illegal smuggling and customs fraud

* Initiate the "special China safeguard" on sensitive textile and apparel categories to control the unfair surge of Chinese imports

* Take action to curb currency manipulation

* Withdraw from the recent trade agreement with Vietnam

Sony Selling Microchip Plant in San Antonio

Whereas Dallas is getting the first new chip plant in the South since 1996, Sony has hired Binswanger to sell its high-tech manufacturing complex in San Antonio. Sony is
closing its nearly 500,000-square-foot chip plant in San Antonio. The facility is located in the city's Northwest Corridor and features several clean rooms and over 140,000 square feet of office space.

Markets in the South Score Well in Job Creation Study

The Milken Institute's Best Performing Cities Index, which was published recently, measures job creation in U.S. metros. This year's ranking showed that Fayetteville/Rogers/Springdale, Arkansas is the No. 1 market per capita in job creation in the U.S. Other markets in the South making the top 10 in job generation include Fort Myers, Palm Beach and the Texas/Mexico border markets of Laredo, Brownsville and McAllen, Tex. Outside the South, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Monmouth, N.J. cracked the top 10 metros in job creation.

Nissan Pathfinder Production Moves from Japan to Tennessee

Nissan officials announced in late June that production of its popular Pathfinder SUV model will be moved from Japan to its existing plant in Smyrna, Tenn. The move is expected to create up to 1,500 new jobs in the Volunteer State. Nissan will add nearly 200,000 square feet to its 5.7 million-square-foot facility in Smyrna and invest $250 million in the project. The Smyrna plant currently manufactures four Nissan models. The Pathfinder will be the plant's fifth model, the same number of models that will ultimately be produced at Nissan's new Jackson, Miss. plant.

Biggest Automotive Deal in Arkansas History Announced

Arkansas isn't home to an automotive assembly plant ... yet. Furthermore, the Razorback State trails neighboring Tennessee by light years in the number of automotive suppliers operating shops. But if a deal announced in mid-July is any indication that the automotive industry has discovered Arkansas, then Tennessee officials need to take note. DENSO Corp., the world's third-largest automotive parts maker, who knows Tennessee very well because of its plants there, has crossed the Mississippi River into Arkansas for its latest venture. DENSO announced it will build a $35 million, 225,000-square-foot facility in Osceola, which is located in the Mississippi Delta region near Memphis. The company is expected to hire 500 new workers at the plant where heavy-duty radiators and air conditioners will be manufactured. Like many Japan-based automotive concerns, the deal announced is most likely a conservative one. Expect the job total to double when the plant is fully operational in a few years.

Calling the Kettle Black

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue recently asked state officials in neighboring South Carolina and Alabama to work with him in bringing some "sanity" to rising incentive packages set up by the three states to lure automakers. The question we'd like to pose to Gov. Perdue is this: Just when did the idea come to your mind, before you approved a $322 million incentive package for DaimlerChrysler to build a $800 million truck/van plant near Savannah, or after?

Oklahoma Making News on the Biotech/Pharma Front

Norman, Okla. is an unlikely location for a pharmaceutical relocation from Palo Alto, Calif. Regardless, Norman is exactly where Yamanouchi Pharma Technologies is setting up shop in a new 60,000-square-foot research, development and headquarters facility near the University of Oklahoma. The company is investing $40 million and bringing 200 new jobs to the Norman area. Also, In mid-summer, Oklahoma City landed a $12 million drug testing center. Cytovance Biologics is building a $12 million plant that will test drugs that treat cancer, diabetes and other diseases. The new Cytovance facility is expected to house 60 employees.

Toyota Expanding Alabama Engine Plant

Like Honda, Nissan and other Japanese automotive deals done in the South over the years, Toyota has announced it is expanding its Huntsville, Ala. engine plant just after the paint has dried on its new facility. The expansion will add over 400,000 square feet to the existing plant, which just recently opened. Toyota will invest $20 million in the deal and add 150 workers. The massive Japanese automaker announced in the spring another engine plant in Jackson, Tenn. If history repeats itself, expect that facility to expand right after it opens two years from now.

Half of Forbes 10 Best Places for Business in the South

Today, the cost of doing business has charged to the top of most site selection factor lists. The editors of Forbes have noticed. Their recently published annual ranking of the nation's Best Places for Business and Careers added the cost of labor, energy, taxes and office space into the ranking's methodology. Additionally for the first time ever, the ranking factored in crime rates, housing costs and net migration. Needless to say, with those factors being used, many Southern markets fared well. Austin, Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta, Dallas and the D.C./Northern Virginia region all made Forbes top 10 best places for business. Outside the region, Boise, Madison, Wis., Provo, Omaha and Des Moines made Forbes top 10.

DHL Looks to Move Headquarters to South Florida

DHL, which is close to acquiring rival Seattle-based Airborne Express, is site searching Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties in South Florida to build a new headquarters campus that could total 300,000 square feet and house as many as 2,000 employees. The air carrier is already moving its U.S. operations center from San Francisco to South Florida.

Only Two Southern States Make Tax Business Climate Index

Tennessee and Florida were the only two Southern states to rank in the top 10 states for business-friendly tax systems. Most Southern states ranked in the middle of the 2003 State Business Tax Climate Index done by the Tax Foundation. The rest of the top 10 included Wyoming, New Hampshire, Nevada, Colorado, Alaska, South Dakota, Washington and Oregon. Each of the states making the top 10 business-friendly tax states scored high in the study as a result of not having one of the major taxes in the index: sales, personal income or corporate income. Other business costs were not factored into the study.

Alabama, Mississippi Band Together

In an unprecedented partnership announced in June, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove signed an agreement to market the border between the two states to expanding and locating industry. During the signing ceremony, Gov. Musgrove said that the agreement will change the way economic development is practiced "in the South and in America." The two states have been in the running for several automotive assembly plants in the last several years. In fact, of the last five new auto assembly plants announced in the U.S., Alabama and Mississippi have landed three of them. It is believed by many in the economic development profession that the partnership between the two states is the first of its kind in U.S. history.

Deal Could Create 2,000 Jobs on Mississippi Gulf Coast

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems is spending nearly $70 million on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to convert a facility into the world's first advanced composite manufacturing plant for military ships. The facility will be used to enclose masts that house radar in various ship models used by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. The ships are currently being built in Pascagoula, Miss. The deal could result in the hiring of 2,000 new workers.

Texas Tort Reform a Model for Other Southern States

It wasn't too long ago that the state of Texas was labeled the "Lawsuit Capital of the World." As late as the 1980s, Lloyds of London even charged an additional "Texas premium" for businesses operating in the Lone Star State. But with Gov. Rick Perry's signing of new tort reform legislation this summer, the lawsuit capital may indeed become a model for other states desperately seeking to rid themselves of out-of-control litigation environments. While limited space prevents us from outlining all aspects of the recently passed tort reform in Texas, it's important to note that business, consumers and elected officials all agreed to get the bill passed. In fact, the final bill was approved by 90 percent in the Texas Senate and 76 percent in the House. The bill, HB 4, does not go as far as some tort reform bills that have not been passed by Southern states in recent years. It is not anti-lawsuit, but rather strikes a unique balance among all parties involved in litigation. It is designed to make lawsuits as a last resort to resolve real disputes between and among various parties.

Two Small Southern Markets Top U.S. in Unemployment Rate Improvements

Florence, Ala., located in the northwest corner of the state and Rocky Mount, N.C. located east of Interstate 95, are No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in unemployment rate decreases over the last year. Recent numbers produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that Rocky Mount reduced its unemployment rate by 2.1 percentage points from May 2002 to May 2003 and Florence led all markets in the U.S. during that time with a 2.4 percent reduction.

Study Shows Silicon Valley Hard Hit, But Austin Hit Harder

San Jose, Calif. has made news over the last couple years as one of the hardest hit areas in the country during a two-and-a-half-year economic slowdown. But a new study shows that Silicon Valley hasn't lost as many computer and electronic products manufacturing jobs as has the Austin, Tex. area, which is known as Silicon Hills. Since mid-2000, the Silicon Valley has lost 29.3 percent of its high-tech manufacturing jobs, while Austin's Silicon Hills has lost 32.4 percent of its high-tech jobs. The study was done by Palo Alto, Calif.-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. Stephen Levy, the director of the Palo Alto think tank said the study was done to point out that California's economy has suffered from a perception that it is leading the nation in lost jobs. Actually, California and Texas have led the nation in lost jobs.

FedEx Ground Building Hub in Maryland

A part of Memphis-based FedEx's nearly $2 billion expansion strategy, Hagerstown, Md. has been chosen for a 335,000-square-foot ground distribution center. FedEx officials announced that the Maryland ground distribution hub is the first of 10 it plans to build in the U.S. over the next six years. The rest of FedEx's Ground division growth strategy consists of the expansion or relocation of more than 300 pickup and delivery terminals and the expansion of 23 existing ground hubs.

Missouri Downtown Development Bill Signed

Missouri Gov. Bob Holden signed the Missouri Downtown Economic Stimulus Act in early July. The new law will make it easier to launch new downtown public improvement projects in the state of Missouri. Tax incentives are part of the new legislation, including a return of more than one-third of sales taxes the project will generate and up to half the additional state income taxes generated by the project. Easier permitting of downtown projects is also part of the new downtown development act.

Georgia Governor Meets with Audi Officials

New Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue's first recruiting trip abroad included a meeting in Germany with officials with Audi AG. Perdue made it clear to officials with the German automaker during the two-and-a-half-hour meeting that Georgia would be an attractive location for Audi's first North American assembly plant. Rumors have been floating that several foreign automakers, including Audi, Mitsubishi, Volvo and Kia are considering building original equipment manufacturing plants in the U.S. for the first time.

Power Costs in Kentucky, West Virginia Lowest in U.S.

The U.S. Department of Energy released its annual ranking of energy costs and it showed that Kentucky has the lowest costs of electric power in the U.S. Kentucky's average cost of electricity is just over 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. The national average is 5.04 cents per kilowatt-hour. West Virginia followed Kentucky as the Southern state with the second-lowest electric power costs.

Texas, Florida Top California in Housing Starts

From July of 2001 to July of 2002, Texas and Florida were the top two states in the country in new housing starts. Both states topped California, even though that state has a much larger population. Texas led all states with 149,208 new homes built and Florida followed close behind with 147,377. California came in third with 130,779 with Georgia (87,909) and North Carolina (76,480) rounding out the top five.