Not every site selection is that seamless. Take DaimlerChrysler, for example.
        Gov. Perdue traveled to Germany in late June for a series of meetings with automotive company executives. Among them were the key decision-makers on the $754-million, 2.6 million-sq.-ft. (241,540-sq.-m.) DaimlerChrysler automotive assembly plant planned for Pooler, Ga., near Savannah. Georgia officials thought they had a firm commitment from DaimlerChrysler to build the new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter cargo van in Pooler. But on July 9, the Daimler board voted to delay the project.
        This vote came after the state had invested $53 million into securing the 1,560 acres (632 hectares) and clearing the land for construction. Even after the vote, Perdue sounded upbeat, telling reporters that this decision "was not unexpected."
        Still, the governor had to be thinking about his state's commitment to the project. To land the Sprinter van project at I-95 and I-16 on Georgia's southeast coast, Georgia opened the bank. The state's total incentives package came to $295 million, or about $67,000 per job.
        That's still a far cry from the incentives package offered by Alabama to Mercedes to build its first passenger-vehicle plant a decade ago in Tuscaloosa, Ala.: $168,000 per job.
        Charlie Gatlin, deputy commissioner for the Georgia Dept. of Industry, Trade and Tourism, recently shared the figures on what it will cost Georgia to secure the Sprinter van plant: $85 million for land and facilities; $65 million for infrastructure such as roads, water, sewer and rail; $35 million for work-force development; and $110 million in other financial assistance such as tax breaks and special legislative relief.

CNN, part of the AOL Time Warner media empire, is based in downtown Atlanta.

        A critical deal component was securing legislative approval for the Enhanced Job Tax Credit, which pays qualifying employers up to $5,250 per job. An attorney for Mercedes told Georgia: "If you cannot pass this legislation, this is a deal-breaker."
        Georgia passed the bill, and the project was saved.
        "This was a very competitive project. And remember – these incentives were agreed to by former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes (D)," says Gatlin. "After the elections last November, we had an obligation to Mercedes to sell this entire package to Gov. Sonny Perdue and deliver this deal to the company. As it turned out, the legislation approving the final deal did not pass until midnight on the final day of the Georgia legislative session."
        That was just one close call among many throughout the 292 days it took to secure Project Blue Bell, as it was code-named, says Gatlin.
        At one point in early 2002, "we had 72 hours to either win or lose the project," says Peggy Jolley, senior vice president of the Savannah Economic Development Authority. "We had one mega-site, but we had five property owners, unknown land costs, unknown environmental issues and unknown historical significance."
        Researchers discovered that Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman had an encampment on the site during the Civil War. "Thank goodness it was Sherman and not Lee," says Jolley.
        The Georgia Ports Authority stepped in and offered to buy the land for the state, with the understanding that the entire 1,560 acres (632 hectares) would be deeded over to Mercedes if the company selected the location.
        Georgia bested two other finalists for this project: Charleston, S.C., and Jacksonville, Fla. (For more on the story behind this project, see the North American Reports in the March 2003 issue of Site Selection.)