Sunday will be the first anniversary of the day Indian
Motorcycle closed its doors in Gilroy. Local advocates and
officials in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration are
working to make it the last.
Sunday will be the first anniversary of the day Indian Motorcycle closed its doors in Gilroy. Local advocates and officials in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration are working to make it the last.
Stellican Ltd., a British firm that bought the Indian brand in July, appears to be taking its time in deciding where in the U.S. to build its new motorcycles, but California isn’t slacking on its sales pitch.
Florida, Alabama and Springfield, Mass. have also been named as contenders. Although Springfield was Indian’s birthplace and home from 1901 to 1953, the city has not launched any campaign to bring it back. Alabama’s top economic development official, however, described his recruitment efforts for Indian as “aggressive.” Florida economic development officials could not be reached for comment.
Bill Lindsteadt, executive director of the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation, has been working for about a month-and-a-half with an ad-hoc committee he established to bring Indian back to Gilroy, where Indian bikes were built from 1999 until September 2003. That committee includes local heavyweights like Rey Sotelo and George Nobile, a pair of custom bike builders and former Indian executives, but Lindsteadt said he has been looking for special help from Jim Bentley, a former Indian public-relations associate from Southern California who happens to be a personal friend of Schwarzenegger.
“We’re using him,” Lindsteadt said of Bentley.
Schwarzenegger has not yet put in a personal phone call to Stellican partners Stephen Julius and David Wright, a spokesman for him said Wednesday.
Numerous sources, however, say there has been continuous contact between Stellican, Schwarzenegger’s office and David Crane, the governor’s special assistant on economic affairs.
A phone call from the world-famous actor-turned-governor might or might not sway Stellican’s decision, according to Mark Mosher, of the California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth, which Schwarzenegger established. The state’s first step is to determine whether Stellican has the money to do what it says it wants to do. Mosher didn’t know the findings on this yet.
If Stellican’s aims are realistic, then Mosher said he definitely will try to recruit them, calling upon the governor’s personal influence if necessary.
“In my personal experience, any time our commission has asked (Schwarzenegger) to make a call when we determined it would make a difference, … he’s made the call,” Mosher said. “We try not to waste his time.”
Mosher said Schwarzenegger has previously called the owners of Amy’s Kitchen, a Northern California frozen food business being wooed by Oregon Gov. Kulongoski, and German computer hardware company Metronix.
The governor is revving up a national campaign to “sell California” – to quote his January State of the State speech. Billboards in other states show his picture and the words, “Arnold says California wants your business. (Actually he says Kah-li-fornia).”
Schwarzenegger owns at least one Indian motorcycle, according to his staff. He once came to Gilroy to pick up one the company gave him as a promotion, and he rode another in last summer’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.”
Lindsteadt’s ad-hoc group has given Stellican a recruitment package listing Gilroy’s advantages as a factory location. He refused to say what those advantages are, for fear his counterparts in competing states would try to one-up them. Among Gilroy’s more obvious advantages are the presence of a skilled workforce that made Indians for five years. Strikes against the city are its high labor costs, high development impact fees and lack of a redevelopment slush fund.
“I think we got as much chance … as the other areas,” Lindsteadt said Wednesday, “but they’ve got more flexibility with what they can do with their local and state taxes than we do.”
Lindsteadt said his group is recommending Stellican move into the former Indian factory, now owned by Hollister developer and vineyard owner Ken Gimelli.
“That’s the most logical (place),” Lindsteadt said. “It’s available; it’s set up for it.”
Meanwhile, at the Alabama Development Office in Montgomery, Director Neil Wade said his staff and the Stellican partners “have had ongoing conversations.”
In June 2003, the Birmingham (Ala.) Business Journal reported that Indian was asking the ADO for at least $1 million in incentives to move to the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham. Wade confirmed that the ADO made Indian an offer and said Stellican has asked for a copy of this offer. He said he understands they will soon ask for new offers from several sites.
“As soon as they give us specifics, we’ll be ready to give them a specific proposal,” Wade said.
Springfield city Economic Development Director Tom McColgan said he has heard “not a word” from Stellican, “either directly or indirectly.”
“I’ve got to tell you, I haven’t heard a word from these guys,” McColgan said Wednesday. “I don’t have a clue.”
“We’d love to talk to them,” he said, “(but) we sort of react to people’s request from us.”
