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Steel plant location may be announced this week The estimated value of the anticipated ThyssenKrupp steel mill for the Calvert area has grown from $2.9 billion to $3.5 billion to $4 billion, the head of the Alabama Development Office told Clarke and Choctaw countians Tuesday. "That's with a 'B' as in billions," stressed ADO Director Neal Wade. The newly-formed Twin Rivers Economic Development Partnership hosted a meeting billed as an "Economic Summit" at Alabama Southern Community College in Thomasville that drew about 100 elected officials, business and community leaders from the counties. Wade suggested that an announcement could be made soon on the ThyssenKrupp steel mill on acreage straddling the Mobile-Washington counties border at Calvert. One rumor suggests that an announcement will come Friday, May 11. The German steel plant would represent four times the investment of Mercedes when it located an automobile manufacturing plant at Vance in the mid-1990s, Wade said. In addition to the 3,000 permanent jobs and 29,000 construction jobs, a number of spin-off jobs and businesses for related industries will be created, he said in answer to Jackson Mayor Richard Long's question about supplier plants for the region. Wade predicted the mill would have a tremen- dous impact on all areas of the region's economy. "If you are a florist you will sell more flowers. If you are a grocer you will sell more groceries. If you are in the dry cleaning business, you will do more cleaning." The mill would produce steel for a variety of uses, including automobile manufacturing. Wade noted that in 1995 no automobiles were built in Alabama. "This year, 800,000 vehicles will be manufactured in the state," he said. Greg Barker of Alabama Power, one of the program's speakers, congratulated Gov. Bob Riley, Wade, ADO and other state agencies for their efforts. He said they had made "shrewd, positive investments with incentive and tax dollars." Regarding the ThyssenKrupp recruitment, "They are doing it exactly the way you would want it done with your money." Wade said forming Twin Rivers and working on a regional basis is exactly what the area should be doing to "pull together, focused in the same direction." He later stressed, "You must tear the walls downs. There are too many communities and areas where the walls not only haven't been torn down, they are as strong as ever." He said economic development isn't "brain surgery" but rather networking with people, cooperation and a little luck. He quoted Vince Lombardi as saying, "Winning is everything." Instead, Wade suggested, "Playing is everything." He explained that communities must be able to play the economic development game. "If you can play, you've got a chance to win." Regional efforts like Twin Rivers increase the chance of communities, small and rural communities especially, to play, he observed. Smaller communities can be players in economic development but it is best to work together as a region. He detailed the efforts of the small town of Guin to recruit an automotive supplier plant. The town and surrounding local governments put aside their differences and amassed to $16 million in incentives to recruit the plant and they have a good shot at landing it, he said. Any community or area "should sell what it has, not what it doesn't have," he said. "There are companies who want more of family values who want to get back into a neighborhood approach," he offered. Promoting quality of life and community is important but he urged, "Don't try to kid a project… be very honest" about shortcomings and problems and work on them. Retail, tourism, retirement recruitment, workforce and education are all important components of economic development, Wade said. Alabama Power's Barker stressed that regionalism is important for economic development. "Business doesn't see political boundaries" when they are looking to expand. Wiley Blankenship is president of the Coastal Gateway Economic Development Authority in Conecuh, Escambia and Monroe counties. It is a regional organization like Twin Rivers that has been in operation a while longer. Blankenship urged the group to look not only at new industries but at existing ones too. "It is a whole lot easier to get them [existing industry] to expand than it is to find somebody new." He said his job is to "promote and market" and to work with other economic development people and agencies in his region. He also said that while Coastal Gateway wants all the new business and industry it can get, it is also a bit selective in recruitments.
"Measure success in wages, not numbers," he urged, saying Gateway's goal is to improve the community and the quality of life for residents.
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