(The following story by Chad Calder appeared on The Advocate website on June 23.)
BATON ROUGE, La. — “Project U” is apparently headed for Alexandria.
Chicago-based Union Tank Car Co., which Gov. Kathleen Blanco announced last week will build a $100 million facility in Louisiana, has notified Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo that his city is out of the running for the tank car manufacturing plant.
Based on prospective locations cited last week, that leaves Alexandria the last city standing to win the facility. The plant is expected to bring 850 manufacturing and professional jobs with an annual payroll of up to $35 million, an average of $40,000 each per year.
The state offered up $65 million in tax incentives to lure Union Tank Car Co., an economic development effort once known only as “Project U” that began with Gov. Mike Foster’s administration and continued with Blanco.
Blanco spokeswoman Denise Botcher confirmed Union Tank Car Co. and the governor plan to make an announcement at 3 p.m. today, but she would not say where Blanco is scheduled to be.
Union Tank Car Co. spokesman Bruce Winslow refused to comment, and calls to Alexandria Mayor Ned Randolph were not returned.
Monroe Mayor Mayo told The Advocate that he received the news Monroe was out of the running just before 5 p.m. Monday.
The Town Talk in Alexandria also was reporting online Monday evening the selection of Alexandria. The newspaper cited confirmation from 5th District U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, D-Quitman, that Blanco will make the announcement at the Community Center at England Air Park, the site of the expansion.
Mayo said the news was disappointing.
He added, however, that he believes Monroe put up a competitive package, offering to build roads, utility, water and sewer lines, a rail spur and other amenities to the 160-acre Killoden Plantation site.
“We knew all along that this was going to be a business decision for them, and location and logistics would play a part,” he said.
Mayo said he’d heard that Alexandria may have an edge “because their location was site-ready.”
England Industrial Air Park is a former Air Force base converted into an industrial park.
England is home to Alexandria International Airport, some air traffic-related businesses and has a direct rail spur to the Union Pacific Railroad.
“I guess Alexandria was more attractive from a business perspective for what they were trying to accomplish,” Mayo said. “We gave it all we had.”
Mayo, whose city has lost more than 2,000 jobs with the recent departure of State Farm and Graphic Design, said he’ll push to keep plans for Killoden alive.
“We’re going to move forward on developing that site,” he said, “because there will be others.”
Union Tank Car Co. was looking for an area with a vocational and technical school and where construction suppliers are plentiful.
Under terms of the deal announced last week, the company will build a $100 million manufacturing facility, between 800,000 square feet to 1 million square feet, capable of producing 14 rail tank cars a day.
The facility will create 700 manufacturing jobs and 150 professional jobs, and another 150 indirect jobs from doing business with local suppliers.
To lure Union Tank Car Co., the state offered $32 million in infrastructure improvements from state and local coffers. They may include a rail spur, equipment, or on-site improvements, whatever the company decides it needs, officials said.
Another $31 million will come from other tax incentives, such as property tax exemptions, Quality Jobs credits based on the number of jobs above a minimum wage set by the state, and enterprise zone sales tax rebates.
The state will also pay out $2 million for work force training.