THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 27, 1996 TAG: 9605250409
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: Ted Evanoff
LENGTH: 81 lines
Here in Hampton Roads it's hard to knock Richmond's good fortune. But you still have to wonder, how'd they do it?
After all, plans call for building not one but two semiconductor factories in suburban Richmond worth $4.5 billion.
If it happens, the windfall is almost beyond imagination. A $4.5 billion capital investment is like Ford Motor Co. putting up four high-tech factories the size of its Norfolk pickup truck assembly plant.
If built in Norfolk and taxed at full value, $4.5 billion worth of high-tech auto plants easily could spin off $55 million a year in property taxes. That's a lot of cash.
It equals the personal property taxes paid on the contents of every residential and commercial building in Norfolk, the second-largest city in Virginia.
Currently, county assessors near Richmond are figuring out how to value a chip factory, so the final figure on taxation could be more or less than the value of a modern auto assembly plant.
Even if it turns out to be less than $55 million in taxes (and a lesser number seems certain since the plant sites are in the country) two chip plants are a real windfall for metro Richmond.
Silicon Dominion is what they've taken to calling the state. And it certainly fit last week.
Motorola Inc. already planned a chip plant west of Richmond and said it would build one east of the city with Siemens AG.
If all this was good news for Virginia, it nevertheless sounded hollow in Tidewater. A few wondered if the conservative hand of Gov. George F. Allen was steering commerce away from Hampton Roads and its Democratic strongholds.
``To me that sounds like sour grapes. I haven't even heard that espoused up here,'' said Gregory H. Wingfield, executive director of the Greater Richmond Partnership, the area's chief economic development group.
``Look at Allen. He's a people person,'' Wingfield said. ``He tries to get involved in all kinds of projects. He likes to talk to CEOs. He likes to write to CEOs. It's a way to sell Virginia to people at the top level of the organization. I think that's a bad knock. If you look at Virginia, all the regions all across the state are doing well.''
Wingfield has an unusual vantage. When Motorola scouted Virginia for the first plant site, he worked in Norfolk as head of Forward Hampton Roads, the chief economic development agency of South Hampton Roads.
He represented the southside to Motorola until he went to the Richmond group in mid '94, joining an agency in hot pursuit of the chip maker. He soon noticed Motorola's interest in the Richmond area's reliable water supply, and especially its residents.
``What excited the people at Motorola when we introduced them to a lot of different businesses in Richmond during the courting period was the high opinion the existing businesses had of the labor supply in the area,'' Wingfield said.
The chip plants will employ thousands of clean room and microprocessing technicians, although only 1 percent of the 16,000 job applications in hand for the first plant are experienced technicians.
Even so, Wingfield said, Motorola thinks it can readily train the Richmond workers in the Motorola way.
``When I was down in Hampton Roads, before they had knocked out Hampton Roads, one of the things Motorola was concerned about was that the labor supply is primarily trained by the military,'' Wingfield said. ``If you look at the Motorola environment, a lot of what they do is in a team environment. There's a lot of flexibility and self-direction. The military doesn't necessarily promote that kind of teamwork.''
A few years ago, mindful of the forecast for scores of new chip plants worldwide, Richmond set out to attract one.
``We didn't go up to Motorola and grab them by the collar,'' Wingfield said. ``But when we were on their radar scope along with 298 other localities, we knew what we wanted to say to them.''
Wingfield describes Hampton Roads as not completely prepared for the Motorola opportunity. Thousands of young military personnel have left the downsizing services, including scores of technicians suited for chip plant work.
In the mid '90s, talk was of a retraining program whose certificate would assure an employer that graduates - a military electrician, say - was suited for private industry. The program never reached full scale.
``I think it would have been one of the elements that could have alleviated Motorola's concern,'' Wingfield said. ``It wouldn't have been the end all, but it would have helped.'' by CNB