Possible Large Job Announcement

[kermit]

I am generally not a fan of speculative reports like this but its been so quiet here.....

The Star News reports that Brunswick County is a finalist for "Project Soccer" a 1,500 job manufacturing and distribution facility. The site under consideration is on 74/76 at the Columbus county line. There are few other details available.

If the stars align and this happens this would create a huge impact in one of the most impoverished portions of the metro. It may also encourage development to the west of town which would also be a major change.

[kermit]

More on "Project Soccer" in today's Star News:

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110829/ARTICLES/110829681/1177?Title=Incentives-could-lure-Project-Soccer-to-Brunswick&ana=e_trig_rdup

[kermit]

"Project Soccer" is drawing to a close. It sounds like there will be an announcement somewhere by the end of the month. Approval of incentives may require a special legislative session according to the Star News.

There was some speculation that this will be a Continental Tire plant.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110914/ARTICLES/110919861/1177?Title=Project-Soccer-incentives-may-need-special-session

[kermit]

No dice for Brunswick county. Continental tire will build its "project Soccer" plant in Sumter county SC.

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2011/10/06/no-goal-nc-wont-get-project-soccer.html?ed=2011-10-06&s=article_du&ana=e_du_pap

Oh well.

The loss of the plant resulted in a substantial partisan kerfuffle about who was to blame:

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/outside_the_loop/2011/10/continental-tire-sets-off-political.html?ed=2011-10-06&s=article_du&ana=e_du_pub

[DigitalSky]

Yup, looks like the blame game is in full swing. what good will it do now though?

[krazeeboi]

I suspect Continental was going to build in SC all along. After all, Continental moved its U.S. headquarters from Charlotte just across the state line to Lancaster County, SC a few years ago, plus SC has an overall stronger automotive cluster complete with big-name tire manufacturers (Michelin has its largest worldwide production site in the Columbia area and Bridgestone announced a few weeks ago that it will invest $1.2 billion into expanded and new manufacturing facilities in Aiken County) and a larger and busier port. I think Continental merely pitted the states against each other to get more incentives out of SC, which it knew it would get without much calculation on SC's part.