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Civic, business, community leaders played roles in landing the LG Chem deal
3/13/2010
By BEN BEVERSLUIS
The Holland Sentinel
Holland, MI — A whole lot of details — like acquiring an extra 60 acres between Thursday evening and an executive visit Friday afternoon — brought the LG Chem/Compact Power Inc. lithium-ion cell project to Holland.
“There was one seamless handoff of responsibility after another,” said Jud Bradford, senior vice president of business development at Bradford Company, recruited to be part of the process because he does business in Korea.
From receptions at Haworth Center showing global businesses operating here to the ability to quickly acquire property not on the market to cooperation of various government agencies, Bradford and others involved in the process say a key factor in landing the project was a strong, united local front.
LG Chem officials agreed, citing the joint, determined efforts of business and community leaders along with the area’s skilled workforce as primary reasons for choosing Holland.
In all, more than 60 area people were involved in a series of meetings with LG officials dating back 10 months — from tours of BPW substations, to analysis of workforce data, to lunches with corporate CEOs, to a reception at a home on Lake Macatawa.
Different groups joined forces depending on needs at the time, often on short notice, when LG officials visited Holland.
Coordinating those meetings, those handoffs, was Randy Thelen, president of Lakeshore Advantage, a privately-funded area economic development agency.
“He was high on that wire, working without a net, and the clock was running on how fast the organization had to get across the chasm,” said Bradford, who is on the board of Lakeshore Advantage.
Consider that overnight property deal.
Early on, LG Chem identified a 68-acre parcel at Waverly Road and 48th Street, said Kris DePree, president of Grubb and Ellis Focus Properties.
But in mid-September, he and partner Tom Postma learned on a Thursday evening the firm needed a total of 80 acres to fit the facility footprint. “We need it tied up tomorrow afternoon by 2 p.m.,” he recalled hearing.
And by 2 p.m. the next day, he said, “We had a signed contract on one parcel and a verbal agreement on the other.”
The properties were not listed for sale, but owners of both “were very cooperative, willing to work with us,” DePree said. “They saw the benefit of this to the greater community.”
Those parcels, in Fillmore Township, are in the process of being annexed by the city. In all, the company is paying a little more than $2 million for land.
Thelen said the company’s due diligence was as rigorous as any he’s seen in his 15 years in economic development.
“It caused us to find out things about ourselves we didn’t know,” he said, adding that made Lakeshore Advantage and the community all the better.
Dick Haworth, chairman emeritus of Haworth Corp., joined the recruitment effort.
“I see us as a community working together to make this a better community,” he said.
He said the best strategy for business and a community is to have good, quality companies that invest in workers, invest in the community.
“I think we all benefit from it,” he said. “I’m sure there’s things we can learn from LG, and I think there are things they can learn from us.
“Let’s help them to be successful, get them involved in our community so we can all be successful.”
Leader-to-leader meetings like those were “very powerful,” said Rebecca Dernberger, vice-president of Manpower’s Northeast Division. “They have the same goals, the same visions; they want the same things for their companies.”
She and Manpower assisted the process by providing detailed data about the local workforce.
“We talked a lot not only about the skill set that is here, but also about the type of worker,” people who work hard, who value doing a good job, she said.
Assistant City Manager Greg Robinson described “the way the community came together to support the project, both the private and public sectors, the teamwork that Lakeshore Advantage set in motion” as an “impressive effort” and said that was one of three factors he thinks attracted LG.
“I think the community can be very proud of that effort,” he said.
The sense of cooperation even extended to helping soothe a decades-old rift between Holland and Fillmore Township over past annexation issues.
Holland Mayor Kurt Dykstra said that grew out of the “11th hour” curveball of the need for more property.
“Out of all this, there was good cooperation between the governments of the city of Holland and Fillmore Township,” he said, calling it a “positive step” between two governments that have had their share of controversy.
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