Wednesday, December 17, 2003
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Wednesday, December 17, 2003 |
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Cooper Lighting brightens PTC job market by $6.5M By J. FRANK LYNCH Cooper Industries will relocate the headquarters of its Cooper Wiring Devices division to Peachtree City next year, transferring as many as 40 executives from Long Island City, N.Y., to a new facility to be built adjacent to the company’s lighting division headquarters of Ga. Highway 74 South. But at least 115 employees will be needed to staff the Fayette County home office of Cooper Wiring, meaning as many as 70 or more professional jobs will be filled locally with the move, sources say. Cooper will bring a $6.5 million payroll to the community, said Brian Cardoza, president and CEO of the Fayette County Development Authority which played a key role in the negotiations with Cooper. He estimated the overall economic impact of the move at $22 million annually. Cooper Wiring Devices will begin construction of a new facility of approximately 50,000 square feet, to be located near the Cooper Lighting headquarters early next year and anticipates completing construction late in the third quarter of 2004. That schedule would allow for the Cooper Wiring Devices headquarters relocation to be completed by the end of the year 2004, officials said. “They’re on the fast track,” said Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown. “I think as soon as the building can get off the ground, they’re ready to do it.” Cooper Wiring’s relocation to Peachtree City is believed to have played in the decision by the state Department of Transportation to speed up the widening of Hwy. 74 from Ga. Highway 54 to Starr’s Mill, now set to start in 2005. Cooper Lighting was “promised” that the highway would be expanded when it made the decision to move to Peachtree City, said Brown, and the company had expressed frustration that the project hasn’t proceeded more quickly. Cardoza would only say that the Cooper decision was another factor in the state DOT’s decision. “It certainly helped,” he said. “Our entire local legislative delegation had already been working with DOT Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl, and our phone call to Sen. Mitch Seabaugh about Cooper’s interest helped get the project moved up.” Seabaugh made the surprise announcement that the road project had been accelerated at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in November, suggesting at the time that it might create industrial opportunities. Cardoza, who came on board at the county Development Authority this fall and marks the Cooper deal as his first on the job, said Cooper’s decision sends a clear message. “Everybody thinks headquarters have to be in North Atlanta, but hopefully this is an indication that the Southside of Atlanta can support headquarters projects, too.” The move will allow Cooper Industries to combine administrative resources with its Cooper Lighting division, which relocated to Peachtree City in 1997 and has become one of the county’s most generous corporate citizens, employing more than 550 people and giving tens of thousands of dollars to local nonprofits annually. Uncertain was the future of more than 250 manufacturing jobs at Cooper’s New York plant. Brown said he was told those jobs would be eliminated. Cardoza said that the factory operations would definitely not be moving to Peachtree City anytime soon. The initial report posted online by the Astoria Times, an edition of the weekly Times-Ledger newspapers serving Queens, said plant operations in New York would not be affected by the move. Cooper Wiring Devices makes residential, commercial and industrial wiring devices, plugs and receptacles for delivering and controlling electrical power, according to the company’s website. Cooper Industries, founded in 1833 by brothers Charles and Elias Cooper and now based in Houston, maintains seven electrical products divisions and two power tool divisions employing 28,000 people worldwide. Annual revenue last year was $4 billion, according to the company’s website.
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