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3200 Temple School Rd., Winston-Salem, NC
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -
A day after Dell announced it was closing down its Forsyth County plant in early 2010, the president of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce said she doesn't regret the millions in financial incentives used to lure the computer manufacturer to the Piedmont.
"If we had to do it over tomorrow, we'd do it again," said Gayle Anderson, who also said she's glad the city had the chance to have Dell here even though the time was shorter than expected.
"It's important to get visibility to create jobs here. We had 4,000 people who had jobs here over the past four years. For that, I think it was worth doing," she said.
Still, the news that Dell would close its desktop manufacturing plant and lay off over 900 employees by January 2010 dealt a serious blow to Winston-Salem.
Mayor Allen Joines called the loss devastating, but stated the city would not lose financially.
"I feel very confident," he said. "One, there's a very tight, binding contract, and then yesterday in our meeting with the senior Dell officials, they made it clear that they were going to honor all aspects of the contract."
Joines said the contract states Dell has to pay back financial incentives within 30 days from the time the city makes the official request, which is expected to occur once the plant officially closes in late January.
"The city is really way ahead. If you look, we get back 15 and a half million dollars, we get 90 acres of land, and they continue to have to pay property taxes every year. We've been getting $500,000 a year in property taxes," Joines said.
Before Dell opened the plant in 2005, the company was promised more than $300 million in state and local incentives. But it was required to invest $100 million, create 1,700 jobs by September 2010 and maintain those jobs for 10 more years. If those terms weren't met, the company would forfeit the incentive package.
On the other hand, there's no safety net for businesses that intentionally opened up facilities near Dell's Forsyth County plant.
Austin Foam Plastics, a company that makes the packaging Dell uses to ship computers, signed a lease to open a manufacturing hub in Winston-Salem to be closer to the Dell plant, which makes desktop PCs.
Another Dell supplier, APL Logistics, also leased space near Dell from which it handles the inventory for suppliers of Dell parts. And Worldwide Technology opened up a warehouse and hired about 20 employees in High Point in order to provide parts and be closer to the computer giant.
"If we had to do it over tomorrow, we'd do it again," said Gayle Anderson, who also said she's glad the city had the chance to have Dell here even though the time was shorter than expected.
"It's important to get visibility to create jobs here. We had 4,000 people who had jobs here over the past four years. For that, I think it was worth doing," she said.
Still, the news that Dell would close its desktop manufacturing plant and lay off over 900 employees by January 2010 dealt a serious blow to Winston-Salem.
Mayor Allen Joines called the loss devastating, but stated the city would not lose financially.
"I feel very confident," he said. "One, there's a very tight, binding contract, and then yesterday in our meeting with the senior Dell officials, they made it clear that they were going to honor all aspects of the contract."
Joines said the contract states Dell has to pay back financial incentives within 30 days from the time the city makes the official request, which is expected to occur once the plant officially closes in late January.
"The city is really way ahead. If you look, we get back 15 and a half million dollars, we get 90 acres of land, and they continue to have to pay property taxes every year. We've been getting $500,000 a year in property taxes," Joines said.
Before Dell opened the plant in 2005, the company was promised more than $300 million in state and local incentives. But it was required to invest $100 million, create 1,700 jobs by September 2010 and maintain those jobs for 10 more years. If those terms weren't met, the company would forfeit the incentive package.
On the other hand, there's no safety net for businesses that intentionally opened up facilities near Dell's Forsyth County plant.
Austin Foam Plastics, a company that makes the packaging Dell uses to ship computers, signed a lease to open a manufacturing hub in Winston-Salem to be closer to the Dell plant, which makes desktop PCs.
Another Dell supplier, APL Logistics, also leased space near Dell from which it handles the inventory for suppliers of Dell parts. And Worldwide Technology opened up a warehouse and hired about 20 employees in High Point in order to provide parts and be closer to the computer giant.
