Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993 TAG: 9302100041
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HEY, WE GOT ATTENTION
The Roanoke bid to land Norfolk Southern Corp.'s national customer service center proved an uphill battle against a company structure that, from the beginning, seemed to favor Atlanta.Some 200 of the 400 workers expected to staff the center already work in NS regional headquarters in downtown Atlanta, where the company's railroad transportation control center is located.
And the center, designed to provide customers with up-to-date information on their shipments and other services, will be supervised by the company's operations division, already based in Atlanta.
If anything, Roanoke Valley economic development officials said Tuesday, their failed bid for the railroad center proved that the valley could marshal incentives - $8 million worth - for an industrial prospect.
"We got them to consider Roanoke when they were ready to make a decision without ever considering Roanoke," said Elizabeth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership. "We were out of the stadium and we got on the field."
There were no illusions, the sources said, about Roanoke's disadvantages in the quest. They knew railroad Chairman David Goode had publicly called Atlanta the "most logical site" for the center. They knew many of its likely employees already worked there and they knew the company scuttlebutt had Atlanta getting the center.
But it didn't seem to matter.
On Aug. 28, three senior city officials, including Mayor David Bowers, flew to Atlanta to make Roanoke's pitch. "They did seem to deliberate about Roanoke," Bowers said, "and they gave us due consideration."
Even as the three made Roanoke's case, city economic development officials were told to press ahead and devise an incentive package, which ultimately totaled $5 million.
Tuesday, those officials still wouldn't say what the package was; generally, though, development incentive packages in Virginia include paying for utility extensions, construction and site preparation.
"What you don't do is . . . give tax abatements and you don't throw money at a project," Doughty said.
In recent years, state economic development dollars have become available for job training and infrastructure improvements, helping localities to sweeten the pot for industrial prospects. Roanoke Del. Victor Thomas' attempt to land another $3 million in state development funds was intended to help Roanoke land the center.
At least that's what Thomas hoped late last week when he sidled up to his colleague, Del. Clifton Woodrum, and whispered:
" `I'm working on something that I think is going to close the deal with Norfolk Southern,' " Woodrum quoted Thomas as saying.
It didn't work. One day after Thomas persuaded his House colleagues to back his budget amendment to earmark the $3 million for Roanoke's bid to the railroad, Goode called Thomas with news that the center would go to Atlanta. He got the call around 6 p.m. Monday.
More than two hours later, taking a break from General Assembly floor action, Thomas sounded crestfallen. His gambit - hailed by Woodrum as "ol' Vic bringing home the bacon" - had fallen short, the victim of history, logistics and cost.
The next day, he admitted failure: "It's a damn shame we couldn't make something out of it. Wouldn't it have been great? It gives us an incentive to try harder."
Railroad officials, eager to soothe any bruised Roanoke egos, pointed out that opening the center here would not have "created" 400 jobs. "There may have been 400 people working on it," said one spokesman. "But there would not have been 400 people hired off the street who were not previously employed" by Norfolk Southern.
Magda Ratajski, the railroad's chief spokeswoman in Norfolk, said "it's safe to say" the employees tapped to work in the customer service center will come "from predominantly in the company."