Region gets good news amid recession

A huge ray of economic sunshine burst upon Georgia on Tuesday with the official announcement that NCR, a Fortune 500 company from Ohio that makes ATMs and check-out machines, is bringing its corporate headquarters, a new plant and about 2,100 jobs to Duluth and Columbus.

Recession? This was more like the good ol’ days of the 1990s, when Atlanta pilfered with abandon corporate and manufacturing jobs from higher taxed, less hospitable Northern and Midwestern climes.

“It’s a great day to be in Georgia,” said Ken Stewart, commissioner of Georgia’s economic development department. “Hard work does pay off.”

So, too, apparently, do tens of millions in tax breaks and other inducements from the state, Gwinnett County and governments in the Columbus area.

The state alone promised NCR more than $60 million in tax breaks. But Georgia’s gain comes at already downtrodden Dayton’s expense. The town, dubbed by Forbes.com as one of the country’s top 10 “fastest dying cities,” loses its only Fortune 500 company and the possibility of thousands of new jobs to salve the bruised blue-collar city’s wounds.

Four hundred miles down I-75, little thought was given Tuesday to Dayton’s woes. In Atlanta, the talk was about adding another global company —- the metro region’s 14th Fortune 500 company —- to the corporate pile.

Hans Gant, senior vice president with the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, likened NCR’s decision to GE Energy’s announcement in the late 1990s that it was bringing a headquarters, good-paying jobs and international prestige to Atlanta.

Since then, though, Atlanta has suffered its share of takeovers, downsizings and bankruptcies. The names read like a Who’s Who of the Atlanta That Was: Scientific-Atlanta, Georgia Pacific, BellSouth —- all local titans absorbed by out-of-state companies.

Tuesday restored some of the lost luster, at least in the eyes of local boosters.

“The message NCR sends around the world, in a recession, is that Atlanta is a great place for corporate headquarters, technology and talent,” Gant said. “Hopefully, it will stimulate others to bring their business here.”

NCR promises:

> 1,250 jobs, on top of the 300 already in place in Duluth, which will be home to NCR’s new corporate headquarters. Bill Nuti, NCR’s CEO, said in an interview that marketing, engineering, IT, finance, human resource and business development positions will come to the Satellite Boulevard complex. Average salaries will be “well in excess of $60,000 to $70,000,” Nuti said.

> 870 manufacturing jobs in Columbus, where workers will build ATMs at a new plant. Recruiting is already underway.

> an expansion that already was on target to employ roughly 900 people at a customer service and training center in Peachtree City.

Based on those plans, more than 3,000 Georgians could one day work for NCR. Nuti added that the company may also build a new headquarters at its existing Satellite Boulevard site or elsewhere in Gwinnett County.

The company will invest at least $30 million, a figure Nuti said should rise “quite a bit more when the aggregate is done.” New-job payroll will exceed $150 million a year, an amount necessary to trigger the state incentives.

Nuti himself, however, will continue to live in New York.

While state officials released the main elements of their tax incentives, Gwinnett County officials say they are still working on property-tax abatements for NCR. Nick Masino, vice president of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, said the county offered “millions” in inducements, but only a fraction of the state package.

“This project is huge in the current economy,” said Masino. “We’re leasing up hundreds of thousands of square feet of property. We’re adding 1,200 workers.”

Gwinnett should benefit handsomely from NCR, said Georgia State University economist Rajeev Dhawan, if the jobs are newly created and not transplanted.

“If they bring people in from outside, that brings more money into the area, but it won’t dent the unemployment rate,” said Dhawan. “If they are hiring locally, that is a big boon.”

Robert Crolic, general manager of Atlanta Classic Cars near NCR’s Duluth facility, said the expansion should help car dealers, restaurants, shops and others.

“This will help the real estate market around here,” Crolic said. “There’s a ray of hope.”