the German-owned company says will result in 400 new, high-wage, white-collar jobs. As they say in candy crush . . . "Sweet"
Daimler's public incentives Daimler Trucks North America announced plans today to build a new, $150 million Swan Island headquarters and add 400 new Portland jobs. It will receive nearly $20 million in public help for the project. Here are the incentives: An $8 million forgivable loan from Portland urban renewal funds. The loan will be forgiven if Daimler creates at least 400 jobs and invests $135 million. "Enterprise zone" property tax breaks worth an estimated $7 million over five years. A $1.8 million forgivable loan from a state business expansion fund. The loan becomes a grant if Daimler adds at least 220 jobs paying an average wage of $66,410. The jobs must stay for at least two years. A $1 million grant from a state strategic reserve fund. A $1 million grant to the Port of Portland, which will build a new parking garage for the facility. "E-Zone Workforce training funds," up to $5,000 per new employee, for a maximum of $500,000.
Fantastic news. This kind of growth is exactly what the city needs. Well paying jobs that will act as an anchor and draw auxiliary industries to Portland.
Neither do I. You can bet both North and South Carolina offered them a hell of a lot more. Greensboro is the truck capital of the country and South Carolina has been wooing auto and aerospace manufacturing.
More bonus (not mentioned in the article): Portland Mayor Charlie Hales confirmed a local architecture firm and local contractors will do the work on the Daimler headquarters. “The ripple effect is huge,” he said while leaving the press conference
Is this news new? My dad works for Freightliner and my girlfriend works on corporate side. She moved from Swan Island to Montgomery Park like a year ago because of construction of the new building.
3 years later and $20,000,000.00 tax gift stolen from hardworking middle class Americans and no sign of Daimler having any intention of keeping their promise of adding 400 high-wage jobs. As Gomer Pyle liked to say...Surprise, surprise, surprise!
So, you read the breakdown of the $20M in incentives, right? I'll re-list those that @SlyPokerDog enumerated previously: An $8 million forgivable loan from Portland urban renewal funds. The loan will be forgiven if Daimler creates at least 400 jobs and invests $135 million. Funds still owed if the jobs haven't been created. "Enterprise zone" property tax breaks worth an estimated $7 million over five years. Funds not "taken" if the headquarters hasn't been built. A $1.8 million forgivable loan from a state business expansion fund. The loan becomes a grant if Daimler adds at least 220 jobs paying an average wage of $66,410. The jobs must stay for at least two years. Funds still owed if the jobs haven't been created. A $1 million grant from a state strategic reserve fund. A $1 million grant to the Port of Portland, which will build a new parking garage for the facility. "E-Zone Workforce training funds," up to $5,000 per new employee, for a maximum of $500,000. Funds not "taken" if the headquarters hasn't been built. So, of the $20M in incentives, over $17M of it is conditional upon them actually fulfilling the promise. Saying they've already taken $20M is disingenuous.
I mean.... it's under construction. Building can take YEARS. The article was from 2013. Sometimes zoning and plans and all the other steps that go into a project can take a long time. http://www.nextportland.com/2014/12/08/daimler-trucks-north-america-hq-construction/ It's supposed to be completed this year.
I staff people for Daimler, they are hiring constantly. Have friends that work there as well. We're lucky to have them in Portland.
If Daimler EVER added 400 NEW jobs to their American operations in Portland and actually hired 400 native Portlanders to fill them, that is at a cost of $50,000 to Real Americans, (most of whom will never make the average wage of a Daimler employee) for each tax-subsidized job. This is socialism for the 1%ers and nothing more. Daimler doesn't need a handout. They could write a check and buy Portland lock, stock and barrel. It appears maybe they already did, at your and my expense.
