Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation

RTI to bring 150 jobs

Jan 9, 2008
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer. Gov. Tim Kaine made his first economic development announcement of 2008 in Martinsville on Tuesday to a packed house of about 300 people in the county administration building.

RTI International Metals Inc., a company that produces and distributes titanium, will move into the new shell building in the Patriot Centre Industrial Park.

“This project is exceptional for the Martinsville-Henry County area. It was a good fit,” Kaine said of the Niles, Ohio-based company that produces titanium mill products and fabricated metal components for the aerospace industry and others.

Kaine gave the county a check for $633,000 from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to help close the deal.

Locally, RTI will create 150 jobs that pay an average salary of $35,000 per year plus benefits. Its capital investments of $100 million within the next three years are larger than all of Henry County’s new economic development announcements in the last eight years combined, according to the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. (EDC).

The deal with RTI took shape since August, despite the fact that it usually takes two years to pull together such a package, Mark Heath, president and CEO of the EDC, said later Tuesday.

The company was put in contact with Henry County by a real estate agent from HART of Charlotte, which was working for RTI. RTI had been looking at a building in Barnwell, S.C., but “it was sold out from under them,” Heath said.

RTI also had looked at locations where it already has facilities, said Dawne Hickton, vice chairman and chief executive officer of RTI. Those locations included Ohio, Missouri, California, Houston and others, she said, but “Virginia was very attractive” in terms of incentives and particularly the shell building and infrastructure in place at the Patriot Centre.

Heath said RTI is made up of “quality people ... a tremendous corporate citizen. When they told us something, we could count on it.”

Jim Adams, chairman of the Henry County Board of Supervisors, said one thing emerged during negotiations with the company: teamwork.

“I thank those working as a team. ... Those working in the trenches work hard every day,” he said.

Heath and others said the teamwork involved public officials such as County Administrator Benny Summerlin and the county’s engineering staff; state officials, including those with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership; and others with the EDC as well as the company.

Heath also noted that the work culminating in RTI’s announcement Tuesday began years ago when local officials had the foresight to grade Patriot Centre lots, install utilities and do other work.

“Communities that invest in themselves and work hard are successful,” he said.

He added later that while some review is needed, he feels another shell building likely will be built in the area. Adams and Supervisor Paula Burnette said they would support another building, and Supervisor Debra Buchanan said she “probably” would as well. Other supervisors could not be contacted on that issue Tuesday.

Ridgeway District Supervisor H.G. Vaughn, vice chairman of the board, told the crowd at the administration building that RTI is the new DuPont, referring to a company that once was a cornerstone of the area’s economy.

“This is a benchmark ... a day in history,” Vaughn said. “This is not a company that will grow into something significant; it already is significant.”

RTI could have located a new facility “anywhere in the world,” Vaughn said, but officials chose this area. “That says a lot about the company, (and) also a lot about the people of Martinsville and Henry County.”

RTI offers many tangible assets such as tax revenues and water, sewer and electric revenues but, Vaughn said, it also will offer an intangible benefit: peace of mind.

It offers “a good job at a good wage with a good company” that values its people, Vaughn said, and that “cannot be understated.”

Martinsville Mayor Kimble Reynolds said RTI fits the area’s commitment to “investing in people and investing in the community.”

Reynolds also said the company’s plans to locate here were the “product of Martinsville and Henry County working together to attract new business to this community.”

An economic development project follows no “magic theory or process” but involves a lot of cooperation and teamwork, Vaughn said.

The deal with RTI would not have happened were it not for Heath’s “devotion to this community and his job,” Vaughn said.

Heath also earned accolades from Kaine, who said the state’s effort in attracting economic development “wouldn’t amount to anything unless we have a strong partner at a local level” such as Heath.

Residents also contributed to the deal, whether they realized it or not, Kaine said. He added that the standing-room-only crowd present in the administration building for Tuesday’s announcement was a good indication of the support RTI would get from the community.

Meeting a company’s physical requirements in terms of location and facility are important when brokering deals, but Kaine said a quality work force, such as the one in Martinsville and Henry County and across the region, is “the closer in every deal.”

He also noted that while Virginia has been called the most business-friendly state, has a high median income and low unemployment rate, not every region of the state shares the benefit. That is why he has asked his administration to make a “significant effort on Southside Virginia” and its economic development.

Kaine presented a flag that has flown over the state capitol to Hickton, and county officials gave her a Henry County flag, both of which can be used at RTA’s new plant.

Also, John Matthews of Martinsville painted a picture of the shell building, at Heath’s request, and it was given to Hickton to hang in the new plant.