THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 19, 1995 TAG: 9501190342
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Motorola Inc. is choosing between a site near Richmond and one in North Carolina for a $1 billion semiconductor plant that would employ about 5,000 people.
Virginia officials declined to comment on news reports Wednesday, saying that the Schaumburg, Ill.-based electronics giant expects to make a decision between the two sites by the end of March.
``We don't discuss projects of any kind,'' said Wayne Sterling, Virginia's Director of Economic Development. ``We don't confirm and we don't deny.''
Motorola is planning to build the new plant in response to the high demand for electronic products that use its semiconductors.
A spokesman for Duke Power Co. in North Carolina said that the utility has made an offer to provide Motorola with the huge amounts of electricity a semiconductor plant would require.
``It's part of the package they are considering right now,'' Duke Power spokesman Andy Thompson said.
Virginia Power spokesman William Byrd declined to comment. ``We receive many inquiries from potential customers and we treat them with the utmost confidentiality,'' he said.
Citing a source close to the talks in North Carolina, the Wall Street Journal said that the president of Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector, Thomas D. George, visited the North Carolina site last week.
``They talked in terms of being in a hurry,'' the newspaper quoted the recruiter as saying.
A spokesman for the company's semiconductor division in Phoenix, Ariz., said that Motorola was under pressure to add manufacturing capacity. Semiconductors are the tiny silicon wafers used in a range of consumer products including pagers and cellular phones.
``We are very much hoping to expand our capacity worldwide,''spokesman Jeff Gorin said. ``We are looking inside and outside the United States.''
He declined to discuss specific sites.
Motorola, based in Schaumburg, Ill., last week reported record earnings of $1.56 billion for 1994. Plant construction would be financed in part by $975 million from a recent sale of common stock.
North Carolina may have an edge because it already owns a small semiconductor plant in Research Triangle Park. The plant, which employs about 250, handles only the first semiconductor manufacturing step, called chip fabrication. Motorola's new plant would handle all manufacturing steps.
The Durham site under consideration is a 5,200-acre residential and commercial development named Treyburn.
Historically, Virginia has been hesitant to offer incentives to get businesses to locate here, but Gov. George F. Allen has taken a different tack. He's shown a a willingness to offer incentives such as tax breaks, on the theory that the state will get a return on its investment.
Virginia offered Disney a sizable package of incentives in its efforts to get the entertainment company to build an amusement park in Northern Virginia. by CNB