For better or worse, here’s a story I did for Richmond’s alternative newsweekly, Style Weekly. The topic involves how lots of bets go bad when it comes to economic development.
A few examples:
Republican Governor George Allen went heads over heels with Motorola showed interest in two silicon chip making plants in the Richmond area back int he 1990s. One was finally built with about $80 million in public goodie money. Well, Qimonda, a German firm, is going through its death throes and just about everyone at the Henrico County facility faces job extinction.
Democratic Governor Mark Warner went heads of heels when Wachovia Securities wanted to move after merging with Prudential Securities about a decade later. The goodie basket was opened again. Well after staying in downtown Richmond for maybe four years, the firm merged with brokerage A.G. Edwards and split for St. Louis. You know the rest of the story — Wachovia is now owned by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo after it got screwed by buying up a lot of toxic, subprime mortgages.
There’s plenty more. Here’s the URL:
http://www.styleweekly.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications::Article&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=7A5BF133D55A4499A7D807A1FC72232D&AudID=AE6FBAD9A9574D429566425E856C8C66
Let me know what you think.
Peter Galuszka
