Can you say Farfegherndon?
September 6th, 2007 by Brian Lustig
Daily Dulles Toll Road commuters would likely not welcome the addition of more cars to the Dulles Corridor route, but how about more car companies? As reported in the Washington Post today, Volkswagen of America was set to announce the company was moving its corporate headquarters to Herndon in an effort to reverse weak sales bedeviling the domestic industry.
400 jobs and $100 million to set up shop will follow, and while a slew of financial incentives from Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine played a large role in engineering the coup, the comments of Volkswagen of America’s new president and chief executive Stefan Jacoby cited “…high quality schools, skilled workforce and proximity to the airport” as significant motivations.
In thinking about Virginia’s gain and Michigan’s loss, I was reminded of the recent ESPN David Beckham commercial centering around the move from his European soccer team to the L.A. Galaxy. It features American soccer fans cheering his arrival, and tearful European fans mourning his departure.
The local angle of the Volkswagen story will continue to receive ample coverage, so I was curious to see if Michigan was still experiencing any “driving pleasure” by watching VW Farfegnugen themselves right out of town. Back on August 22, Detroit News Auto columnist Daniel Howes chronicled Governor Jennifer Granholm’s efforts to keep the German automaker’s US headquarters - and 1,400 jobs - in her state.
According to the column, Granholm headed out to Germany as part of a larger set of meetings and was hoping to meet with VW chiefs, only to find the entire country abandoned for the traditional August vacation exodus. Though the Governor’s office expressed confidence two weeks ago, today’s news turned out to prove otherwise.
Over the long haul, Michigan’s ongoing economic struggles may have a silver lining by forcing a more diverse business climate that relies less on the declining auto industry. For the Dulles Corridor - which has endured its own economic shocks from the dot-com bust - today’s announcement is tremendous validation for the region’s efforts to develop a highly skilled workforce and first-rate higher education system.
Dan Howes and the Detroit News do everything they can to portray the Governor in a poor light. VW explained that their move had nothing to do with Michigan. Furthermore, Michigan retained 600 financial and technical jobs, due to our competitive business environment. That’s over half of the jobs that remained at VW after their efforts to streamline the company.
You can get the full story about VW and you can download the pdf version of Jacoby’s letter to Governor Granholm here - Michigan’s Competitive Business Environment Saves Most VW Jobs