Ohio's pain is Atlanta's gain

By Dan Chapman

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
6:02 p.m. Monday, February 22, 2010

First up was NCR, the famed, 125-year-old cash register company that moved its headquarters from Dayton, Ohio, to Duluth last June.

Then came Fischbein, which announced in July that Suwanee, not Cleveland, would be the site for a new production line.

Finally, earlier this month, aluminum can maker Novelis quit Cleveland and moved its North American headquarters to Buckhead.

For those keeping score: Atlanta 3, Ohio 0.

And that’s just in the last eight months.

Poaching business from the Rust Belt isn’t a new phenomenon. Midwest companies have been heading to the Sun Belt for decades to take advantage of balmy weather, tax breaks and non-union workers.

But the quantity, and quality, of the relocations augurs well for Atlanta. NCR, Novelis and Newell Rubbermaid moved headquarters – and hundreds of well-paid, white-collar jobs – from the Midwest to Atlanta, burnishing the city’s reputation as a corporate magnet.

In all, 43 Midwestern companies have established headquarters, warehouses, distribution centers, factories, branch offices or testing labs across the region since 1999, according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber. Ohio alone has shipped 20 of those companies or their units down Interstate 75. Only three other states -- California, Florida and Texas -- have been more generous toward Atlanta.

“We don’t have a ‘Target Ohio’ strategy,” said Hans Gant, a top Chamber recruiter. “And we’ don’t really say to the Rust Belt: ‘Come to the New South.’ We always target companies that have essentially out-grown their current locations. As companies become global players their needs change dramatically.”

While the loss of NCR, in particular, sticks in Ohio officials’ craws, they outwardly profess no strong animus toward business-stealing Atlanta.

“No one company moving from one place to another is a body blow,” Mark Barbash, chief economic development officer for the state of Ohio, said Monday. “Everybody looks at Ohio as the Rust Belt; we have to get rid of that impression. The whole national economy is in transition.”

Every relocation, of course, is different. Fischbein found cheaper accommodations for a new factory to make packaging equipment. Novelis’ global headquarters was already located in Atlanta; it made logistical sense for the North American headquarters to follow.

NCR – the Fortune 500 relocation coup of the year – chose Gwinnett for numerous reasons, according to CEO Bill Nuti and others. Hundreds of NCR employees already had white-collar jobs in Duluth and blue-collar ones in Columbus. A research tie-in with Georgia Tech was crucial. And Georgia and local communities gave the ATM maker $109 million in incentives to seal the deal.

Georgia business recruiters downplay state-specific targeting. Gant, for example, says corporate research, trade shows, site-selection consultants and cold-calling potential recruits around the country and the globe introduce prospects to Atlanta.

The state’s economic development department, for example, runs business-recruitment offices in Pennsylvania and California but not Ohio. Gant and Ken Stewart, the state’s economic development commissioner, travel extensively. Stewart, reluctantly, acknowledged he has visited Ohio “a few times” since becoming commissioner in January 2007.

“That’s no more than anywhere else,” he said. “We go where the companies are and where the opportunities are. State lines don’t matter. Country lines don’t matter. We’ll always be calling on new customers in order to keep the pipeline flowing.”

Ohio officials were miffed when NCR left Dayton for Atlanta. Barbash was more subdued Monday.

“We think Atlanta is a fine community,” he said. “Contrary to some, we don’t subscribe to the idea that economic development ought to be a zero-sum game. We don’t take the approach (of) stealing companies from one place or another.”

Barbash points to Ohio’s No. 4 spot in Site Selection Magazine’s 2009 ranking of best business climates as proof that, despite recent defections, Ohio remains a good place to do business. Georgia ranked No. 8.

Still, there’s no getting around that Ohio's loss has helped cushion Atlanta's recessionary pain.

“Obviously, it’s nice to know more Ohioans and Midwestern folks are settling down here, but when I start thinking about the economic well-being of my home state, I do have concerns,” said Shawn Murnahan, president of Ohio State University's growing alumni and booster club in Atlanta. “But if other Midwesterners are following me down here, it could be a good move for them.”