Montgomery County and Maryland were beaten in the economic development game again by Virginia yesterday. Will they be players in the next big manufacturing competition, for an IKEA factory on American soil? Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's office announced Tuesday that his state had won the competition for a 400,000-square-foot Condair Group AG manufacturing facility. The press release indicated that Virginia and South Carolina were the two finalists. Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported this past weekend that IKEA is scouting for factory locations in the United States, due to increasing disruptions in international shipping lanes.
Virginia could already have a [LÖVBACKEN table] leg up in the IKEA race, as the Swedish furniture giant previously operated its only U.S. factory in Danville, Virginia from 2008 to 2019. It ultimately closed that plant, shipping its 300 jobs back to Europe. Montgomery County has plenty of room for an IKEA plant in the I-270 corridor, where there is also potential direct rail access to the CSX Metropolitan Subdivision for domestic or port shipping purposes. Of course, Baltimore, Hagerstown and Cumberland are among the struggling Maryland cities that could use an IKEA plant to help revive their once-mighty industrial areas.
There's no indication of Montgomery County or Maryland having been in the hunt for the Condair plant. The $57.2 million investment by Condair in Chesterfield County, Virginia will create 180 good-paying industrial jobs with full benefits. Instead of Condair products being exported out of the Port of Baltimore, they'll be headed out of Richmond Marine Terminal in Virginia, according to the press release.
"When an international brand like Condair makes the decision to locate in Virginia, the positive ripple-effects of economic investment, job creation and cargo growth are felt throughout the Commonwealth," Virginia Port Authority CEO Stephen A. Edwards said in a statement. "The Port of Virginia will be among the beneficiaries of Condair’s location in Chesterfield County, which is not far from Richmond Marine Terminal. We are ready to collaborate with Condair to help it leverage the assets of this port — America’s most modern gateway — to ensure it has access to world markets."
"Virginia is the perfect location for the international company Condair to establish its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility," Youngkin said in a statement Tuesday. "We applaud the 21st century manufacturing jobs that this project will bring to Chesterfield County."
What a meatball of an IDEA.
ReplyDelete@7:50 Agree 1,000%
ReplyDeleteWho cares how many times Montgomery County loses to Virginia on anything !
ReplyDeleteDo we want to be like Northern Virginia with OUT OF CONTROL Development and Apartment Buildings JAMMED IN to each other ?.
I don’t think so !
Elrich has repeatedly said he doens't want the lower-paying jobs in MoCo, so they won't fight for it.
ReplyDeleteDanville used to house many furniture factories, so it's a good choice in terms of expertise.
As for Hagerstown, it's booming due to its location where interstates 70 and 81 intersect, as well as US-15. They are building logistics centers one after another (the Amazon one is the soze of 20 football fields). FedEx there is hiring warehouse workers with no experience, starting at $22/hr.
They will happily take on more business. The Amazon center was a show of this -- they rebuilt the road around it (Wesel Blvd) just for Amazon, so it's now two lanes each way with plenty of room for trucks... and they did it all in less than a year.
Hope our energetic new governor isn't 'all hat and no cattle.' Time will tell but I see MD becoming more like NY and California than successful.
ReplyDelete"Montgomery County has plenty of room for an IKEA plant in the I-270 corridor,"
ReplyDeleteWell it sure does, passed the old COMSAT site last Sunday and the FOR LEASE sign is still up, what is it, 20 years now that place has been vacant? TWENTY YEARS.
"Elrich has repeatedly said he doens't want the lower-paying jobs in MoCo, so they won't fight for it." There is so much wrong in the statement it is hard to digest. What elitism. Meanwhile, young people with no skills will STILL have no where to turn and learn them. Skills like showing up on time, completing the task, etc.
ReplyDeleteI'd be ok with the very poor to move away, but why not stay if we'll keep up SNAP and entitlements and incentivize crime.
Delete6:33 - Moving away is a fabulous idea, you first. AND DON'T COME BACK!
ReplyDeleteWe don' need no stinkin' taxpayers!
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DeleteAs an ex- Moco resident who moved to DE, many, many people are taking your advice.
Virginia has factories and jobs. Montgomery County has bike lanes.
ReplyDeleteMaryland has factories, too. They're in the poorer, less educated parts of the state, just as in VA. Unless you're talking something skilled like pharmaceutical manufacturing, there's no reason a company like this would pick MoCo (or DC, or NoVA). That'd be as ridiculous as a biotech company opening in Allegany.
ReplyDelete9:49: There aren't as many as Virginia has. We certainly should be attracting aerospace and pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities to MoCo.
ReplyDeleteWe do attract pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities to MoCo. That's the entire point.
DeleteThere is dignity in all work. There is no dignity in living a life on the dole. I am seeing a lot of elitism in this thread. Plenty of people in MoCo would love to work at a factory, especially if it were close to home. And we DO want to encourage people to walk and bike to work, don't we?
ReplyDeleteRight, MD has the highest median income in the country. VA is significantly poorer with much of the state having terrible job prospects. I have no idea why you think that's a negative for MD and a positive for VA. Very few people wake up in the morning saying "you know what Maryland needs? $9.50-$12/hour jobs! Darn VA and WV are stealing all of them!" This is as silly as you thinking Fairfax is better because they have more homeless people than us. Quantity=/= quality.
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