Micron Silence On Expansion Worries Cities

The silence is unnerving.

Just two weeks remain before Micron Technology Inc. unveils its choice for a $1.3 billion expansion plant. Yet the company has not offered so much as a hint to competing cities about their prospects.

Like edgy game show contestants, cities vying for Micron wonder who will get the promised 4,000 jobs and $200 million payroll.

“Waiting is frustrating,” said Bob Potter, president of the Kootenai County business recruiter Jobs Plus. “But we’ve always felt that we have one of the better sites for Micron.”

So do sites two through 13.

The company hasn’t even cast a subtle wink at a likely winner - not even to business recruiters like Potter, who typically are in the know.

Consequently, all 13 finalists still insist they’ve got a good shot a landing a manufacturing plant so large it could boost an entire state’s economy.

Micron plans to build a manufacturing campus that will double its production, now based solely in Boise. In addition to the jobs, about $32 million in annual property taxes are expected.

Reports abound about a shorter list of finalists, but none can be substantiated.

Micron on Friday shot down a report from a Spokane television station that Post Falls and Payson, Utah, are the only final sites.

“They are all still being considered as far as I know,” said Micron spokeswoman Julie Nash.

Regardless, Kootenai County has ample reason to be sure it is still in the running.

Potter on Friday met with a North Carolina consultant hired by Micron to search for the best plant location. Post Falls officials met with the same consultant on Thursday.

“It was really routine,” Potter said with a weary voice. “The meeting doesn’t mean anything good and it doesn’t mean anything bad.”

City Manager John Hendrickson said Micron still is showing tremendous interest in Post Falls. For example, the company has contacted the city’s building department for information on building requirements.

“I never count chickens until they are right in front of me,” Hendrickson said. “But I still think that because of location, Post Falls is the best site in Idaho.”

Spokane and Kootenai County business recruiters had geared up for a three-day tour of the region by Micron’s search team. That trip was abruptly canceled, however. Recruiters downplayed the significance of the cancellation, but it wasn’t welcome news.

The search team’s trip has not been rescheduled.

Micron’s Nash insists that no city is being put through an exercise merely to help Micron hide its expansion location.

She said the cancelled trip to Spokane and Kootenai counties shouldn’t be taken as “a negative or a positive.” Micron’s search team visited all 13 final sites, but planned follow-up visits to those where questions remained unanswered.

“Maybe we’ve already got the information we needed (about Kootenai County),” Nash said.

Kootenai County’s competitors in the fight for Micron also feel they’ve got strong odds.

A Nebraska legislative committee on Friday passed along two bills to the full Legislature, both aimed at luring Micron to Omaha. The bills would give Micron credits toward work force training and tax help.

Oklahoma City business recruiter Gary Pence said he’s had only limited conversations with Micron and had not met with the company’s consultant.

Evan Barrett of the Butte (Mont.) Local Development Corp., also has heard little from Micron. But he’s decided that pestering the company is a bad strategy.

“All of the cities put together voluminous applications,” Barrett said. “So it’s only reasonable to allow Micron the time to digest all of that. It’s their horse to ride.”

Other sites in the running include Boise, Nampa and Twin Falls in Idaho; Lacy and the Tri-Cities in Washington; South Bend, Ind.; Waterloo, Iowa; and the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.

Construction on the Micron plant is expected to begin in April.

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