Boise was finalist for Oregon sportswear giant’s manufacturing plant. Arizona got it
Boise was a finalist this summer for a big Nike manufacturing plant that instead will be built in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.
The Phoenix Business Journal has identified Boise as the other finalist for the $184.5 million plant that will employ more than 500 people and make the air soles that go into Nike Air shoes.
In an email to the Idaho Statesman, Nike spokeswoman Sandra Carreon-John said Boise and Goodyear were among several cities considered by the company.
“Ultimately, we decided on the location in Goodyear, Arizona, for several reasons, including the cost to develop the site, the ability to start production in 2020 and access to transportation, among other factors,” Carreon-John said.
In September, Nike paid $69.8 million for a 902,000-square-foot building in an industrial area near the Phoenix Goodyear Airport. The factory is expected to begin operation in June.
While Carreon-John did not elaborate on Phoenix’s transportation advantage, it’s easier to get in and out of the Arizona city than Boise from other cities in the United States and foreign locations.
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport serves as a major hub for American Airlines, with more than 250 daily departures to 102 destinations in five countries. Southwest Airlines has 188 daily departures to 53 cities across the U.S.
Last year, Phoenix Sky Harbor served 44.9 million passengers, compared with 1.9 million passengers at the Boise Airport.
An email sent in June by Lori Gary, the city of Goodyear’s economic development director, to Goodyear City Manager Julie Arendall said the Arizona market was “$2.5 million more expensive than a competing location, which documents revealed to be Boise,” the newspaper reported.
As a result, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council sought $2 million from a state “deal-closing fund,” Gary wrote in the June 3 email, obtained by the newspaper through a public records request. The money is in addition to $500,000 the state had already committed for the project.
The state incentives were later withdrawn after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey became upset with Nike. He sent out a tweet at 2:04 a.m. on July 2 ordering the Arizona Commerce Authority to withdraw all financial incentives the state was providing for the company to locate in Goodyear.
His anger stemmed from Nike’s decision not to sell a special sneaker adorned with an early design of the American flag. The Beaverton, Oregon, company abandoned the shoe design after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, a Nike spokesman, expressed concerns that the so-called Betsy Ross design was being used by white supremacist groups.
Arizona officials, including Chris Camacho, CEO of the economic council, speculated the withdrawal might cause Nike to go elsewhere.
“I’m sad for the citizens this would have employed if the project gets pulled,” the Phoenix Business Journal said Camacho wrote in an email to Gary and a Goodyear economic development project manager.
The Arizona Republic reported on July 1 that Nike planned to open the plant on the west side of Phoenix. The news came the day after the Goodyear City Council signed off on the deal.
Within five years of the plant’s opening, Nike said, it would employ at least 505 workers who would earn an average salary of $48,514 per year, including overtime and bonuses. It said the company would pay for at least 65% of employees’ health-care premiums and would invest at least $184.5 million in an existing building that will house the plant.
Documents obtained by the Business Journal showed there was originally a $24 million cost difference in favor of Boise over Goodyear. Officials in Goodyear worked to increase the city’s incentive package, which eventually was worth more than $2 million and was unaffected by the governor’s tweet.
Goodyear had worked since late April to obtain the Nike deal, the newspaper said. The Greater Phoenix Economic Council forwarded Goodyear a request for proposals for the plant. City officials spent several months talking with Nike’s site selector, Rachel Gradner of CBRE in Chicago, before the decision was made.
Mike Journee, a spokesman for Boise Mayor David Bieter, declined to comment to the Statesman, referring a reporter to the Boise Valley Economic Partnership.
On Thursday, Clark Krause, the partnership’s executive director, said he could not say whether Nike had considered Boise for its plant. It’s standard practice, he said, for companies to require confidentiality agreements when they’re considering a city for a project. If a project comes to fruitiion, they can talk about it, but the confidentiality agreement remains in effect if the company goes elsewhere.
“The companies that we work with all require us to really have a ‘cone of silence,’” Krause said by phone.
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 5:38 PM.
