THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220335
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID REED, ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Motorola's expansion in the Richmond area will be larger than the state and the company estimated in September, Motorola Vice President James George predicted Wednesday.
Motorola negotiated an $85.6 million package of incentives from the state with the understanding that the company would create about 5,000 jobs within 10 years at the Goochland County computer-chip manufacturing plant.
Motorola's investment is expected to bring more than $500 million in tax revenues over the first 20 years, according to the state Department of Economic Development.
``Those figures are conservative,'' George told a group of Virginia Tech engineering professors and administrators.
The Richmond area is Motorola's third ``anchor site'' for producing semiconductors, the dime-sized electronic circuits used in personal computers, pagers, cellular phones, cars and household products. The other sites are in Austin, Texas, and Phoenix, Ariz., each of which employ more than 9,000 workers.
George said it is conceivable that the Richmond area anchor site will reach the size and employment levels of the Arizona and Texas sites.
Also, George said Motorola ``tends to expand within a state with an anchor site.'' For example, the company opened a manufacturing plant in Fort Worth after locating in Austin.
As with the other anchor sites, Motorola purchased far more land - 230 acres - than needed initially. In the first phase under way, the 130-acre West Creek site in Goochland County will employ about 1,000 workers in buildings covering 850,000 square feet. by CNB