West Point,Georgia Expected To Get New Kia Plant

Congratulations West Point and KIA – The Deal is Official! Click Here for More!As we discussed previously here, it is looking much more likely that KIA has chosen Georgia  as the prime destination for their new automotive plant. The following Detroit Free Press article shows that the plant is looking to be coming to the West Point – LaGrange area of mid west Georgia.

This area of Georgia has been hard hit in the  last decade as many textile jobs have gone overseas. The benefits to the region is immense and with their sister company Hyundia having a plant nearby in Alabama the West Point site is very logical for KIA.

Kia would not confirm plans for the plant. Georgia officials also would not confirm whether Kia is coming to their state, but officials with competing states said privately Tuesday that Georgia is the front-runner.

Georgia has been passed over for a string of auto projects while its Southern neighbors have landed plants. Nissan Motor Co. has plants in Tennessee and Mississippi. BMW has a plant in South Carolina. Alabama has been the big winner overall with plants for Mercedes-Benz, Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Hyundai.

In 2002, Georgia lawmakers passed a new set of “mega-project” tax incentives in an attempt to land a DaimlerChrysler AG cargo van plant. The plant was announced but the company later canceled it.Georgia also made a failed attempt to save a Ford Motor Co. plant outside Atlanta. The Hapeville, Ga., plant is on the list of plants Ford announced earlier this year that it plans to idle.
Bert Brantley, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, would not comment about specific companies but said the state is aggressively going after the auto industry and has the tools to land one this time.
“I’m certainly convinced that the work we’re doing will end up in an auto plant being here,” Brantley said. “Who knows when the time frame will come, but we were so close with DaimlerChrysler, and we were so close with Ford.”
Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina have been reported to be the lead candidates for a plant.

A site near LaGrange, Ga., would make a likely place for the Kia plant. LaGrange is about 90 miles up I-85 from the Hyundai plant in Alabama. It’s also a short drive from Atlanta. In addition to the Ford plant, a General Motors Corp. plant near Atlanta also is planned for idling and will close eventually.

People close to the negotiations in South Carolina said it hasn’t been formally rejected by Kia but appears to have been put on the back burner. Georgia was the leading contender, they said.Mississippi officials have seen reports that their state is out of the running but they haven’t stopped trying to make a deal.”We’re not going to give up until they announce it somewhere else,” said Brenda Lathan, director of research and business development for the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link in eastern Mississippi.

Georgia would make a logical choice because it missed out on previous plants and is losing GM and Ford plants, said Hill of the Center for Automotive Research. The state is eager to land a plant to keep a piece of the automotive industry, he said. via The Detroit Free Press

For more discussion on the Potential Kia Plant, Topix.net has a vibrant discussion going on about it here.

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