BLUE RIDGE —- Georgia’s momentum for gaining new auto industry business remains strong despite the state’s loss of a $500 million Volvo plant to rival South Carolina, officials said Friday.
Volvo aside, economic development officials say recruitment efforts resulted in $3.7 billion in new investment in the state in the fiscal year to date, in line with 2014. The projected new jobs number — 23,287 — is up 21 percent vs. the same period last fiscal year, the department said.
During a board meeting of the state Department of Economic Development, the agency’s head of global commerce likened the Volvo pursuit to being in a “championship game” that featured “lead changes” but didn’t break Georgia’s way.
“We will take a lot of lessons away from that,” Tom Croteau, the department’s top international recruiter, said without getting into specifics and without naming Volvo.
On Monday, Volvo announced it will build a factory near Charleston, S.C., where it plans to employ 4,000 workers. Georgia pitched a site in Bryan County near Savannah.
The board congratulated the department’s efforts. Economic development commissioner Chris Carr said he is “disappointed in the outcome, but not in the effort.”
State officials have declined to release the state’s offer of incentives, which Carr described as “aggressive.” The package likely was valued well into the hundreds of millions. South Carolina offered $150 million in grants and bonds, plus an undetermined amount of state and local tax breaks and other aid.
Georgia officials have declined to say much more about the recruitment effort because they consider the project to be ongoing in case Volvo runs into environmental roadblocks that could prompt it to reconsider.
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