Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 16, 1995                   TAG: 9505160067
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IT'S NOT A MATTER OF BLAMING

Maybe. The searching-for-fault motivation can be a natural part of our overall purpose. By definition, our job is to question.

So when Motorola announced last month that it would build a $3 billion, 5,000-employee plant on a 230-acre site in Goochland County, the Roanoke Times & World-News wondered if New River Valley communities had ever been in the running.

My interest was initially piqued when Don Moore, Montgomery County's director of economic development, said no one had contacted him about Motorola's search. The county's 164-acre Falling Branch industrial park would have seemed to at least warrant a look-see by Motorola officials.

Initially, it seemed nobody at Motorola or the state Department of Economic Development had even considered Falling Branch.

Later I found out that the state had contacted Franklyn Moreno, executive director of the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance, about sites for a potentially large - though nameless - project. Moreno sent information on the 650-acre New River Industrial Park in Pulaski County, site of the old AT&T plant.

But Moreno said he never heard anything back.

So there was the nut of the story. The man whose job it is to market the New River Valley - Moreno - was contacted but nothing else, and the man who oversees what could be the industrial park with the most potential in the valley - Moore - hadn't heard anything at all.

So I began trying to figure out what the New River Valley needed to do better, what Motorola didn't like about sites other than the one it chose - and, yes, if someone at the state level had been "falling down on the job," so to speak.

On the day that the story was to go to print, Moore sent out a news release saying he'd found out if anyone looked at Falling Branch.

They had, though they hadn't gone through the normal channels. A Motorola consultant had visited the site, but didn't ask for help from either Moore or his counterparts in Richmond.

That, coupled with the fact that the state did call Moreno, pretty much negated any "falling-down-on-the-job-by-state-officials" angle to the story.

The second part of the equation turned out to be impossible to get. Motorola wouldn't comment on why it didn't choose sites, just why it did choose Goochland.

So the first question: What does the New River Valley need to do better?

In one case it's obvious.

Falling Branch needs to be developed. Utilities have to be in place, the land needs to be graded, the things that change it from farmland to industrial park have to be completed.

This will take some time, though. Such moves are in the works.

What else does the valley need? Time and patience, perseverance and hard work, a little bit of luck; if nothing else, those are some of the things required of the New River Valley's economic developers. Build more shell buildings, acquire more publicly owned land for industrial sites, keep pushing local government leaders to be aware of economic development needs; those are some other things.

Sometimes, though, it just seems things aren't meant to be.

A source at the state economic development department told Moore that no community lost out for anything it failed to do.

And several government, Motorola and economic development officials said the company just plain liked what it saw at the site it chose outside of Richmond better than any place else. There was a "comfort level."

Choices are made, and in economic development, like all forms of competition, choosing a winner means others had to lose.

But does that mean those failed efforts are to blame? Sometimes, maybe. Other times, no, but they can be learning experiences.

Robert Skunda, the state's secretary of commerce and trade, said, "The best thing you can do is go back and try to land the next one. ..."

And while it doesn't appear anyone was to blame for not bringing Motorola here, asking the question was a legitimate action.

And hopefully what is learned from the answers will be put to good use the next time this region's economic developers go fishing.

Stephen Foster is a New River Valley bureau staff writer.