Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel courted with $2 million incentives package (AKA- A Deal With The Devil)

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2003 13:30:31 -0500

Nextel courted with $2 million incentives package (AKA- A Deal With The Devil)

The Associated Press
1/6/03 1:05 AM

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (AP) -- Nextel, the communications firm, is narrowing its choices for
a new
call center, with Muscle Shoals and Shreveport, La. offering packages to lure the project.

At least 500 people could be hired at the center. Nextel representatives say the
Virginia-based firm
will likely begin the extended process of selecting a site late this week.

The six largest governments in the Shoals have agreed to provide a financial incentive of
about $2
million. Also, road improvements and taxbreaks are being considered.

"We are prepared," said Forrest Wright, executive director of the Shoals Economic
Development
Authority. He said it's now just a matter of when Nextel will decide.

The $2 million incentive package offered by the Shoals includes $1 million from Muscle
Shoals,
where the call center would be housed, $250,000 from Lauderdale and Colbert commissions
and
Florence, and $125,000 from Tuscumbia and Sheffield.

Nextel has interest in the old Wal-Mart building at Southgate Mall in Muscle Shoals. One
of the
buildings Nextel has looked at in Shreveport is the former home of Precision Response
Corporation.

Shreveport is also putting together an incentive package to offer Nextel. Arlena Acree,
director of the
city's economic development department, declined to release details of the city's package.
She told
the TimesDaily newspaper in Florence the proposal had not been submitted.

Muscle Shoals Mayor David Bradford said the governments' financial commitment to the
project
"tells Nextel that we would welcome them with open arms."

He said the Shoals did not "step up the plate" when it had a chance to lure a SouthTrust
Bank call
center. The project ended up in Tennessee. He said the communitywide commitment to the
project
is encouraging.

"This would be good for them and would obviously be good for us," Bradford said. "We're
committed
to doing what we can to persuade them to come here."

http://www.neworleans.net/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?n5408_BC_LA--Nextel-Incentives&&news&newsflash-louisiana

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