Hyundai having spillover effects
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, February 25, 2003
The regional economy is taking a turn towards the automotive.
Recently, two area towns have landed major suppliers for the Montgomery Hyundai plant. Luverne will be the home to Shin Young Metal Industries, 400 jobs and numerous stamped metal parts that will make their way to the automobile factory. Enterprise will host a 200,000 square foot facility that will produce 350 jobs and assorted pieces of weather stripping, rubber tubing and hoses.
With four supplier plants announced and several more companies still looking for homes, much talk has been circulating about whether or not Troy will be host to one such facility.
But details are still sparse.
Troy Mayor Jimmy Lunsford spoke of an unnamed industry, which may or may not be vehicular in nature, at Tuesday night's city council meeting.
&uot;I spent the day meeting with an industrial prospect for lunch and I'm pleased with the way those negotiations are going,&uot; he said.
&uot;They've been impressed with the work ethic of the locals they've met and they met with representatives from K&W plastics and Lockheed-Martin.&uot;
Lunsford thanked the city employees for their hard work in getting facilities prepared for the visiting industry representatives and said that Troy was in the running to be named as home to a facility of some sort.
Selma, Greenville, Prattville and Brantley have all been named, along with numerous other cities, as possible sites for suppliers.
Sources familiar with Troy's continuing courtship with a Hyundai supplier say that the industries are extremely sensitive about publicity surrounding the possible deal.
Stephen Stetson can be reached at stephen.stetson @troymessenger.com.