DATE: Saturday, May 3, 1997                 TAG: 9705030285

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   65 lines

TELEPHONE TIP HELPED CHESAPEAKE LAND CHUBB INSURANCE COMPANY THAT WILL BRING 250 JOBS WAS ATTRACTED BY AREA'S PLUSES

One telephone tip to the region's private economic development arm helped to lead a Fortune 500 insurance company to bring its business and at least 250 jobs to the city.

The Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance had gotten leads before from the location scout, New Jersey-based Wadley-Donovan Group. Two of the leads resulted in businesses locating in the region: Avis and Al-Anon, both in Virginia Beach.

This time, the consultants told the alliance that the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies was looking for an East Coast location for its first $10 million rapid-response claims center.

Once Chubb got Wadley-Donovan's list of dozens of cities east of the Mississippi River, it took the company just three months to narrow the choice to Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and Orlando. Those cities made the cut, people involved in the negotiations say, because of their skilled labor forces and quality of life.

Hampton Roads cities offered an appealing package that included grant money and job training from the state of Virginia and a central location in the Eastern time zone. And finally, Chubb officials found a space they liked in Chesapeake's Battlefield Corporate Center, a business park near the highways.

``It all came from a lead through the consultant, who we've worked with prior to this,'' said Keith Norden, vice president of marketing for the alliance, which receives public and private funding to help bring businesses to the region. ``They know the area well, and we are sure to keep in touch with them.''

Norden said the process, from the time the alliance was contacted until the decision was made, took substantially less time than the usual 16 months.

During the negotiations, the alliance, along with the cities, hosted seven visits from the consultants and Chubb representatives. They met with existing businesses and at least four developers who could build Chubb a 65,000-foot complex in time to open in the first or second quarter of 1998.

Chesapeake and Virginia Beach submitted separate proposals in February to Chubb, both including incentives offered by the state. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the state's private economic development arm, kicked in $300,000 for infrastructure improvements needed for the new building, and the Virginia Department of Business Assistance offered job training.

Company officials wouldn't say specifically why they chose Chesapeake. The incentives were ``nice extras,'' but they were offered by both cities and were never crucial to negotiations.

Donald Z. Goldberg, Chesapeake's director of economic development, said he doubts the written proposals looked much different from each other.

``They didn't really want to talk too much to us city officials once they got here,'' Goldberg said. ``They talked to a lot of other businesses to see why they liked it here. It came down to them finding a location they could see themselves in.''

Goldberg described the competition between the Hampton Roads cities as friendly. ``We compete against our neighbors so much as we all sell our assets.''

Chesapeake Mayor William E. Ward said he believes that once Chubb chose Hampton Roads, the company landed in Chesapeake because of the central location and access to the highway, available space and reasonable tax rate.

The city also offered to help the company through the permit process.

``There was nothing we didn't like in the area,'' said Mark P. Korsgaard, a vice president of the Chubb Group. ``It comes down to, in the longer term, a variety of reasons we're going to Chesapeake. I can't tell you, though, there was a huge difference between cities.''

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu