It does seem like Fort Worth constantly misses out on office jobs...make no mistake, the announcement that Toyota is moving to Plano and bringing 4,000 jobs is still good news for the city of Dallas.... Many of those people will be shopping, eating, partying and living in Dallas. ...I think Fort Worth does a really poor job of marketing itself to the business community and is really being left behind.
I have my suspicion that Rick Perry had already cut a deal with Toyota and Plano during his trip to California; and that the deal would go to heavily conservative Collin County. would be getting this and not Dallas proper or even Fort Worth. It happen so quickly and secretly that hardly anyone including Dallas proper or Fort Worth had an opportunity to make their pitch.
Rick Perry for President
While I can understand how you'd come to that conclusion... that's not exactly how these things work.
I have my suspicion that Rick Perry had already cut a deal with Toyota and Plano during his trip to California; and that the deal would go to heavily conservative Collin County. would be getting this and not Dallas proper or even Fort Worth. It happen so quickly and secretly that hardly anyone including Dallas proper or Fort Worth had an opportunity to make their pitch.
Rick Perry for President
While I can understand how you'd come to that conclusion... that's not exactly how these things work.
From Dallas Morning News (5/3/2014)
Toyota leases interim offices
...Bruce Miller and Paul Martin with the law firm Vinson & Elkins negotiated the office lease
Miller said "The transaction to rent the office space happened quickly. We didn't know who the tenant was going to be until Monday...The lease was signed Wednesday".
Apparently, they knew something ahead of the rest of us, just not the who?
Now I ask anyone for an explaination of how Plano and the Campus of Legacy get this over Irving (Las Colinas), Dallas (Uptown/Downtown) Westlake or Fort Worth?
Also Gov. Brown (California) cited comments from Toyota who said the decision to consolidate operations in Texas (Plano) was based partly on its proximity to manufacturing plants in Texas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Indiana. So then why not relocate to San Antonio?
Figured I'd go ahead and explain my previous comment.
In these types of projects, whenever a major corporation is looking at moving their facility, in nearly every case that corporation hires an outside site selection consultant. There are a lot of reasons why they do this, but one of the biggest is to help keep things quiet until they've had time to fully evaluate their options and make a final decision about where they are going to go (the last thing you want is for your staff in California to hear about how the company is thinking of moving operations to Texas or for everyone in Texas to know where you are wanting to go which can lead to a lot of unnecessary and inaccurate press based mostly on rumor and a decision that's still in process and it can drive up the costs of your land purchase or moving costs, etc.). Now, what most people don't realize is that by the time a company (or rather their site selector) contacts a given state or community that they are interested in locating in, about fifty percent of the work has already been done - the site selector has gone through a fairly in-depth process of working with the client to figure out what specific criteria is going to be used for deciding on where to locate (this list can include dozens of items ranging from proximity to customers, access to major transportation and distribution networks, land costs and availability, taxes, regulatory environment, cost of utilities, quality and quantity of the specific kinds of workers they need for their operations, quality of life and yachting opportunities for the CEO, etc.).
So typically what will happen is the site selector will use that list of criteria to start focusing in on a group of regions that fit what the client is looking for, and they come up with an initial list of targets. They then prepare a highly classified request for proposals that they then distribute to the states and/or chambers of commerce or economic development organizations of the areas that they are considering. If it goes to the state, the state will then contact community representatives and discuss the project which may or may not result in that community or chamber preparing a proposal that the state will then coordinate submission of to the site selector and, in the process, work with the community to coordinate potential state and local incentives. Now, obviously, the state isn't going to call any region that doesn't have key items that the company is looking for, such as rail or presence of a major research university or a workforce of a certain size, etc. - the fewer the people who know about the project, the better, because if you are the state who leaks the project, you lose.
If it goes directly to the region (e.g. the Greater Dallas Chamber), they will usually reach out to their member communities (e.g. City of Dallas, Irving, Plano, etc.) and invite them to submit their best sites, if any, based on what the company is looking for (these sites will then be assembled into one proposal prepared and submitted by the regional chamber). These communities/regional chambers will then coordinate with the State as they get a bit further into the process to coordinate incentives, job training, etc. The idea in every instance is to find the location that will be most competitive and therefore most likely to be selected by the relocating company. If the State was the one reached out to by the site selector, then the state will be the one to submit the proposal (which may include 2-3 of their "best sites"), if it is the region's chamber or economic development organization, then they will be the one to submit the proposal to the site selector. For smaller projects, this may all be done between the site selector and individual cities.
Pretty much every step of the way, the site selector always has multiple locations on the list, even if there is one in particular that they or the client are most interested in (this gives them a plan b if necessary and ensures that they are getting the best deal by leveraging the competition; it also allows them to avoid committing prematurely to any one location before it has been completely vetted). And until fairly late in the process, the identity of the company is kept a well-guarded secret (again, the last thing you want is for this to get out into the press before you are ready for it). So usually, the site selectors discuss the project and present it to states/communities using a code name (everything from "Project 253" to "Project Windfire!"). It is not until after the site selector has gotten down to a list of finalist locations and has visited the proposed sites and begins really getting into a discussion about incentives that the identity of the client is revealed to the state and/or community. The other locations that are also being considered are also usually kept pretty close to the vest until fairly late in the process.
This entire process will usually take about four to six months (which is actually pretty fast all things considered), though it can also stretch on for a year or more. However, it's like an iceberg - the part that you are going to see publicly is only a very small part of the full process that led up to it.
Now, I not going to say that politics doesn't play a factor - it often does. But keep in mind that it is a competition - a competition that is played under very strict rules set by the company that is moving (and also, of course, by federal, state and local laws and regulations). Sometimes the deciding factor can seem very arbitrary (rumor has it that the thing that put Chicago over the edge versus Dallas in the relocation of Boeing's HQ was the fact that Boeing's CEO at the time was a very big sailing enthusiast, which Chicago knew about and made sure to give him an incredible view of Lake Michigan on his visit to the city; but this was only after the two cities became finalists).
In this particular project (with a particular eye to the sales and upper-management professionals that they will be employing), it makes sense that they would want to go to Plano. But that says nothing of the degree to which Fort Worth was ever a serious competitor for the project at any stage along the way and what may have prevented it from being more competitive. This is just one project, but there are many like it that all run with the same playbook. Fort Worth is pretty good at competing, but the deck is currently stacked pretty well against it and it is going to have to find some way to overcome this if it wants to get the kind of projects that a city of its size and assets should be attracting.