Yet, there were positive signs at the Statehouse last week of the opportunities and challenges that this new global economy offers.
The business card that Gregory D. Dronen, global facilities director for the BWI Group, distributed after a meeting of the Ohio Tax Credit Authority summed things up better than any lengthy discourse. Dronen was identified on one side in English. The flip side has his personal information in Chinese. BWI stands for Beijing West Industries.
The tax credit authority had just approved a tax credit for the Chinese-based company valued at $923,758 as part of a $2.6 million package of incentives aimed at persuading BWI to consolidate operations in Kettering.
If the project goes through, BWI, a designer and producer of chassis, brake and suspension systems, would bring about 100 new engineering and corporate jobs to Kettering’s Miami Valley Research Park and retain more than 200 existing area jobs.
It might not be the return of NCR, but for a region and state striving to move ahead after a national economic downturn and the exodus of thousands of high-paying job, it would count for a lot.
Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley, who was at the meeting here, has been involved in the wooing of BWI.
Dayton and Ohio officials have had more luck meeting with BWI leaders than they did getting a sit down with NCR Corp CEO Bill Nuti as he plotted NCR’s exit from Ohio.
Former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, much maligned — fairly or otherwise — by Republicans for NCR’s departure, hosted two Ohio events for BWI, said Foley.
The first was a dinner at the Dayton Racquet Club in November 2009, just a few months after the NCR announcement, said Foley.
The second was a lunch at the governor’s mansion in November 2010, just a few days after Strickland lost his re-election bid to current Republican Gov. John Kasich. Translators kept the conversation flowing, Foley said.
The key was building relationships, said Foley, a Democrat.
“I think that’s a lot of what this is,” said Foley. “Even though the relationships are not built overnight.”
Relationships are only part of the deal. The $2.6 million incentive package must be the right recipe for BWI. The Dayton area’s well-trained workforce is a plus, Foley said.
Foley can’t resist a historical lure.
It would be fitting, he said, for BWI to invest where inventor Charles F. Kettering came up with the idea for the first electric ignition system for automobiles, among other innovations.
“That’s not lost on many of us who are trying to make the case to BWI,” Foley said.
Dronen didn’t mention the historical tug when he explained what’s next.
It will be two or three months before a final decision is made by company officials in China, he said.
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