DaimlerChrysler said Tuesday a weak economy has forced it to scrap plans to build Sprinter cargo vans in Savannah, dashing Georgia's hopes for a $750 million plant that would create more than 3,300 jobs.

The decision also hurts South Carolina, runner-up in bidding for the plant last October. Economic developers hoped their consolation prize would be jobs created by plant suppliers locating across the Savannah River from the site at Pooler, Ga.

Han Tjan, spokesman for DaimlerChrysler AG in New York, said the company's management board decided a U.S. plant would not be profitable.

"It was not a viable business case anymore," Tjan said.

With commercial vehicle sales falling in North America and Germany, the company believes it can continue to supply the Americas and Europe from Dusseldorf, which has been the sole producer of Sprinters since production began in 1995.

Vans now are shipped to Gaffney for final assembly. Daimler's Freightliner truck subsidiary makes chassis there, and the plant was expanded for kit production of Sprinters last year.

For former S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges, Tuesday's announcement was vindication.

Eleven months ago, Hodges walked away from a deal with the automaker that would have placed the factory and its $19-an-hour jobs near Charleston.

"We look a little better now, don't we?" he quipped.

Despite months of negotiations and special-incentives legislation passed by the General Assembly, Hodges said he pulled out because the Stuttgart-based automaker wasn't ready to commit to building the plant.

On Oct. 17, Daimler officials said they would build the plant in Savannah - if they built it at all.

Now, Daimler says it won't build it at all, leaving Georgia with a 1,500-acre site by Interstates 95 and 16, with state-built sewer lines and roads. Altogether, Georgia spent $24 million to buy the site and about $36 million more to develop it.

Georgia officials said they hope to recoup the $60 million cost by seeking other companies.

South Carolina offered incentives that carried a $346 million price tag for taxpayers, compared with about $320 million from Georgia.

But in valuing deals, cash up front carries greater weight than tax breaks down the road that are available in most states.

Hodges, a Democrat who lost re-election to Gov. Mark Sanford the next month, said he couldn't offer more without a firm commitment from Daimler.

"Georgia was willing," Hodges said. "In the end, Georgia was left with a 20 million dollar-plus investment in real estate, but no plant."

"This vindicates us," Hodges said. "It shows what can happen in economic development when you put up too much in upfront incentives."

Days after South Carolina was out of the running, former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat also running for re-election, held a victory celebration in Savannah's historic Trustus theater that no one from Daimler attended.

His Republican opponent, Sonny Perdue, mocked the announcement but pursued the plant after beating Barnes. After a meeting with Daimler officials in Germany in June, he said, "Pooler is the location of choice, and we remain hopeful of a green-light decision this year."

Daimler's actions were confusing to Jim Morris, who served as chief of staff of the S.C. Commerce Department under Hodges.

"They pursued (the deal) like they were going to do it the next day," he said.

But Morris noticed two days before Daimler picked Savannah, it had avoided a strike with the Canadian Autoworkers union with a deal that included a pledge to build a $1.6 billion plant in Windsor, Ontario, to offset the closing of a Dodge Ram commercial van plant there.

"I couldn't see how they could do both," said Morris, now a senior vice president for Wilbur Smith Associates, an engineering consulting firm in Columbia.

In March, Daimler said it wouldn't build the Windsor plant.

"If you were paying attention to the discussion, it was sending pretty clear signals this was not going to happen."

Meanwhile, Daimler and other automakers have been expanding production in Asia.

Daimler announced a deal worth more than $1 billion in September 2002 to increase its stake in two Asian commercial vehicle producers. Earlier this month, it said it would expand production of Mercedes sedans in China.

But Tjan said the nixed Windsor plant and Asian production are not related to the decision to abandon Savannah.

Reach DuPlessis at (803) 771-8305 or jduplessis@thestate.com.