Carbon Motors CEO William Santana Li (right) and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels hold up a copy of the News-Examiner after their announcement on July 29, 2009, that the company would locate in Connersville. (GRADY TATE / News-Examiner file photo)
Some say the effort to land Carbon Motors was a waste of money and time. Others believe the good things derived from the effort outweigh the negatives.
The community got tremendous publicity when Carbon Motors announced Connersville would be the company’s headquarters. And by obtaining the former Visteon building, the community gained the ability to clean it up and make improvements to it. Without Carbon, that was not likely to have happened.
Carbon Motors moved out in late March prior to its lease expiring. The company website and Facebook page are no longer operating. Carbon chairman William Santana Li’s Twitter account for Carbon is inactive.
His Linkedin site lists Li as chairman and CEO of STEALTH, in California’s Silicon Valley, beginning March 2013. His association with Carbon Motors is listed as “January 2003-March 2013.” No website can be found for a company called “STEALTH.”
Economic Development Group Chair Bill Long said the EDG spent $158,000 on the Carbon Motors project. That includes travel to Atlanta and Washington, D.C., funding for rallies on Carbon Motors Day in May 2009 and for a rally when the company made its site selection announcement and other items associated with the project.
The EDG received about $10,000 in donations to help offset the expense of the rallies, he said.
Julie Greeson, Connersville clerk-treasurer, said the EDG paid the expenses involved in bringing the company to town, although town employees put in time getting the facility ready for rallies and after.
Fayette County Treasurer Mary Hiers said the county did not put money into the effort.
The county did agree to back any bonds with tax dollars and pay a portion of the utilities if the company moved forward, said Fayette County Commissioner Barton Barker. That didn’t happen so the county did not spend the money.
“The question becomes, ‘What would it have cost us to get the notoriety and support we were able to get through that whole initiative?’” Long asked. “If you had to put a dollar figure on what it would have cost to get that kind of advertising and notoriety, it would be an offset to that number. There is no question our community benefited from the process.”
Pete Bell, EDG’s immediate past chair, said the community had high unemployment and an abandoned building with environmental issues when Carbon Motors came to the attention of the EDG,
“As a result of the Carbon Motors project we now have a marketable facility that is environmentally stable that as you drive by looks very nice,” he said. “We also got attention and publicity as a community that we could never, ever have afforded. It continues to pay dividends today because folks are still calling and showing interest in the buildings.”
After looking back at the process and the ultimate conclusion, given the circumstances in 2009, Bell could not think of anything that should have been done differently.
The city’s commitment to the project was not as expensive as many people think. The money received by Carbon Motors came from the state primarily from the city of Lawrenceburg, he said.
“If I was still involved in economic development projects, I would be much more cautious about following the state’s lead on projects,” he said. “I would recommend communities like ours do a better job of vetting these projects themselves as opposed to following the state’s lead.”
Because the Indiana Economic Development Corp. had given the Carbon project its approval and had been willing to put money into the project, the local EDG took its approval without a lot of vetting, Bell said.
Fayette County Council member Jim Wulff agreed that the company should have been researched more thoroughly.
He said information about the company had been held too tightly by Bell and Mayor Leonard Urban and not passed along to other elected officials.
“I think if you looked at it and the company was telling the truth, we would have known,” he said. “I won’t support any company in the future that does not have any backing money of its own. I hope we’ve learned from this.”
“If I was still involved in the process, or if I get back in the process, I would recommend we do a very good job of vetting these projects ourselves,” Bell said. “We have that capability. Projects we are doing now, we are doing a pretty good job of really digging into and trying to find out the wheres and why fors. I’m sure that will continue.”
The effort was not in vain, Bell said. Hindsight is always 20/20 and many naysayers will say “I told you so,” but at the time, everyone at the city and county level of government supported it and the community supported it.
No one knows how any economic development projects will turn out. Most of the companies involved are start-ups, Barker said.
“The reality is you fail more than you win but you just have to keep at it,” he said. “We spent a lot of time and effort. There was a lot of riverboat money put into the building. You have to spend money to get something but we have to get jobs into the community.”
A benefit that cannot be measured is the coming together of the community to bring Carbon Motors, Long said. That effort proves that when everyone works together for the common good of the community, good things will happen.
“It gave us the chance to come together and put the best face on Connersville we could and it lifted the spirits of the community and breathed optimism that we want to continue to foster in everything we do as we pursue other economic development opportunities,” he said. “It will take the effort of the community to bring jobs, not just the Economic Development Group, city government or county government. The whole community must realize we’re all stakeholders in this effort.”
Everything that is done matters including attitudes towards anything that happens in the community. It’s about having a positive attitude,
“EDG, by spending the money, was doing exactly what it was designed to do and that was to pursue business opportunities,” Long said. “Unfortunately, they don’t always pan out. If you don’t make the effort, you surely know what the outcome will be. We’re not going to accept that and we’re going to continue to pursue business opportunities.”
Money will continue to be spent wisely because that money is provided through city and county governments, he said. It will be spent if there is truly an opportunity to bring jobs to the community.
“We were in a difficult place, and still are as a community, but ‘no risk, no reward,’ is the mantra I would adhere to,” Bell said. “As a community we will have to take risks and if we don’t, we’ll be where we are, still searching.”
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