City of Fremont prepares for NUMMI closure’s ripple effects

[The Northerner]

Source: Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal

Nina Moore realized it was a long shot when she and other members of a blue ribbon commission made a whirlwind trip to Japan in early March to persuade Toyota Motor Corp. officials to keep operating the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant.

Toyota officials hadn’t wavered since first announcing Aug. 27 they would shut down the plant.

But the stakes were large for the Bay Area’s fourth-largest city. Losing a 5.3 million-square-foot facility that produces thousands of Toyota Corollas and Tacoma trucks will mean a $2 million drop in property tax revenue for Fremont. The layoffs of 4,700 plant employees and up to 25,000 at supplier companies statewide represents a loss of $1.4 billion in annual payroll and benefits.

“It was an 11th hour attempt to try to get the decision reversed,” said Moore, director of government and community affairs for the Fremont Chamber of Commerce.

NUMMI has been a unique, 25-year partnership between the Japanese auto giant and the industry’s former behemoth, General Motors Co. It all started to unravel in June 2009 when financially troubled GM pulled out of NUMMI.

“My message to Toyota was how related NUMMI is to our community and how much it has contributed to Fremont and our nonprofit organizations,” Moore said.

Read more: http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2010/03/22/story3.html?b=1269230400^3061461

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