Economic developers target auto giants

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Newly revised plans for "hard-hitting" June meetings in Germany to "unleash" the International Center for Automotive Research will likely include Gov. Mark Sanford, state Department of Commerce officials, BMW Manufacturing Corp. top executives, Upstate economic developers and possibly U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, said Sam Konduros, president and CEO of the 10-county Upstate Alliance.

At the economic development group's annual investor meeting Wednesday, Konduros and Chris Przirembel, Clemson's vice president for research, also detailed a March trip to Detroit, where business leaders and recruiters will lobby for U.S.-based auto manufacturers to locate in the ICAR project.

"We certainly want participation of one or more of those companies," Przirembel told The Greenville News, alluding to the major U.S. automobile companies. He added, "We're down to GM and Ford."

Among the 111 total active business leads and prospects trumpeted at the Alliance's general investor meeting, a good number are U.S.-based firms including suppliers and smaller manufacturers, Konduros told The News.

He added during a public talk that trade shows and mission trips are the Alliance's "heavy hitters" for attracting business.

In a presentation to the Alliance board, Przirembel zeroed in on the Southeast, now the most automotive-rich business region yet one without a major U.S. firm's headquarters.

With a now-official Greenville project blending automotive research with motorsports forays and a graduate school of automotive engineering, prospects at the upcoming Society of Automotive Engineers congress in Detroit will become more serious about participating and new faces such as Clemson academic faculty can now participate in the wooing of new tenants, Konduros and Przirembel said.

ICAR was easily the dominant topic at the Upstate Alliance's parley, where a Who's Who of local and state leaders met to ingest multiple types of cheesecake, honor and induct some of their ranks and survey the nonprofit's past and coming years.

Harry Watanabe, president of Fuji Photo Film Inc. in Greenwood and an honorary Alliance board member, said it takes the group's aggressive singularity of focus to make up for lost time.

Using engineering as an example, he said traditional engineers have specialized in mechanical or electrical areas. Automotive engineers such as those to be trained in Clemson's new graduate school, however, must master a much broader range of skills that will take the wide-ranging input of sundry local firms.

"We are behind the latest," Watanabe said. "We are starting retroactively, especially in advanced (manufacturing) areas."

Konduros said the high-profile group traveling to Germany this summer will "divide and conquer" instead of sticking together, meeting face to face in small groups with European prospects to aggressively pitch what they say will be ICAR's global clout.

The presence of top political figures and local automotive executives on the trip is already boosting the anticipated results of committed ICAR participants, Konduros said.

Przirembel said those eventual European tenants as well as existing pledges BMW, IBM, Microsoft Corp. and Michelin North America will emphasize automotive electronics advancements, which breakthroughs will in turn require more educated workers that will have to come from the local population.

The announcement of the beefed-up Germany trip was part of the Alliance's ever-rosier forecast for this year's economic development. Konduros cited 27 new leads and prospects in less than two months to begin the year. Staff and board members showcased under-budget 2003 financials and better prospecting tools on its Web site, called a major "gateway" tool for global prospects.

January's Web site hits were the highest in the Alliance's three-year history.

Local business stalwarts Irv Welling of accounting firm Elliott Davis and Bill Workman of Economic Development LLC were both lampooned and honored with new emeritus board member positions. A keynote address from Wall Street financier and Palmetto Institute chair Darla Moore followed the day's meetings.