Note how sales taxes are increasing after taxes were cut...
Kia breathes life into old Georgia textile mill town
By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
WEST POINT, Ga. — This old textile mill town of 3,500 along the Alabama border 80 miles southwest of Atlanta is dealing with a problem it hasn't had in ages: Downtown is booming so much it's often hard to find a parking spot.
"It's a problem we don't mind," says Mayor Drew Ferguson, pointing out business after business that have opened recently, 24 in the past 20 months. "It's amazing, the economic viability of downtown."
At a time when once-viable manufacturing communities across the USA are struggling to hold on, West Point — which flirted with obsolescence after the textile mills moved abroad — is beginning to prosper once again. Sales and property tax receipts are going up, jobs are being created, and there's a sense of unbridled optimism here.
The excitement is being driven by the recent opening of Kia Motors' first North American manufacturing plant, which began building the Sorento here last fall. In an area that has been staggering since the textile mills began moving out 20 years ago, the Kia plant is generating enormous enthusiasm. Kia says 43,000 people applied for 1,200 jobs on the first shift; it's now sorting through 31,000 applications for 1,200 second-shift jobs.
State and local officials made a huge investment to get Kia — local, state and federal tax breaks, incentives, even a new exit off Interstate 85. People here say that investment is paying off.
"When I first came here, there were, like, tumbleweeds rolling around downtown," says Ruthanne Williams, owner of the Irish Bred Pub downtown. She and her husband, Trent Williams, poured their life's savings into the restaurant and bar, betting that Kia would attract enough business for them to succeed in a location where several restaurants had failed before they bought the place.
"We definitely came to West Point, aka Kiaville, because of the plant," she says. "And it's been a very good decision. We believe in this town. We believe in this community. And we believe in Kia."
Outsize economic impact
Researchers at Georgia Tech estimate that Kia will generate 20,000 new jobs in a nine-county area of western Georgia and eastern Alabama by 2012, generating an annual economic impact in Georgia alone of $4 billion a year.
That's a new heartbeat for West Point.
The city was once home to textile giant WestPoint Stevens, one of the nation's top producers of towels with thousands of employees in this area in the 1980s. Competition from Asian and South American manufacturers, outdated plants and a hostile takeover soon led to the closing of plants in this area and around the South.
This community lost about 16,000 jobs over the past 20 years, Ferguson says. Just since 2001, Troup County has lost more than 5,000 jobs, a 15% decrease, according to the Georgia Department of Labor. Most of those jobs were in manufacturing, primarily in textiles.
"After the mills left, you could ride through the middle of West Point on a Thursday or Friday afternoon and sometimes you wouldn't see a single car parked," says Griggs Zachry, 70, owner of Zachry Construction and secretary of the West Point Development Authority. "It was absolutely heartbreaking."
Zachry says the rebirth of West Point has been slowed by the recession. "It's been a little slow; because the economy is so bad, nobody can get any money."
Many workers not local
Another dark spot on West Point's bright horizon: Many of the new jobs are going to people outside the county, including to Alabamians.
Troup County's unemployment rate in January was 13.4%, making it the 35th highest of Georgia's 159 counties. State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, who calls this area "the epicenter" of economic activity in Georgia, says success is "not without challenges. Not everyone will benefit unless they are educated, skilled or trainable."
Many of the Kia workers come from Alabama, which has long had a workforce of skilled autoworkers. The state has three automobile plants: a Mercedes-Benz plant in production in Vance since 1997; a Honda plant in Lincoln since 2001, and a Hyundai plant in Montgomery since 2004.
Western Georgia and the eastern Alabama communities just across the Chattahoochee River — such as Lanett, Valley and Shawmut — have long been closely linked, so Alabama is seeing a boom, too: About half the 20 or so new automotive suppliers in the area are there.
Residents here say the population in West Point is growing.
"I have been here 19 years, and now, for the first time, I walk down the street and don't recognize people," says Doug Shumate, owner of CopperMoon, a maker of exterior landscape lighting for high-end homes, and chairman of West Point 2100 Foundation, a non-profit group that buys and refurbishes old buildings.
There is a significant construction boom, concentrated mostly in Alabama. The Greater Valley Group, one of the area's largest development companies, has $195 million in residential, retail and commercial construction underway, spokeswoman Jeanne Charbonneau says. "To date, everything we've built is within 7 miles of the new Kia plant," she says.
Ferguson says West Point is positioned to leverage its good fortune to revitalize neighborhoods that have languished in disrepair for years. He says his city is acutely aware of how strong its position is compared with many former manufacturing towns.
"We have a huge sense of our place in history," Ferguson says. "We're so empathetic to what a lot of other communities in our country are going through. We are very thankful — and very aware of the opportunities that lie in front of us."
(c) USA TODAY
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