8 months ago
NCR Corporation said Tuesday that it's moving a manufacturing plant to Columbus -- contradicting previous reports that the plant would be built in Macon.
The office of Macon Mayor Robert Reichert said Monday night that NCR, the nation's largest ATM manufacturer, will move a factory to Macon, employing about 880 people.
Tuesday morning, the Mayor's spokesman Andrew Blascovich said that report was "incorrect."
In a news release Tuesday, NCR said the new Columbus, Ga. plant would manufacture advanced ATMs. They said the City of Columbus will use stimulus funding to purchase the building for the plant, which will be leased back by NCR.
Blascovich said he was following up Monday night on reports published elsewhere, including the Atlanta Business Chronicle, that said the plant would be located in Macon. He passed on those reports to a 13WMAZ reporter, and the story was reported on 13WMAZ Eyewitness News at 11. The story was also posted on 13wmaz.com.
Blascovich said he took responsibility for the misunderstanding.
Mayor Reichert says he got a call from a reporter with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution around 10:30 p.m. Monday. The reporter asked him how he felt about the plant moving to Macon. Reichert says he then got online and read several news stories saying the plant was coming to Macon. He then told Blascovich to begin calling Macon media outlets to find out what they knew.
Reichert said he'd never confirmed the information with NCR.
Pat Topping, senior vice president of the Macon Economic Development Commission, said the city had been vying for the NCR plant since January and was a finalist to land the project. He said he learned Friday in a phone call from Gov. Sonny Perdue's office that the plant would be built elsewhere.
Topping said NCR officials visited Macon three times and visited the former Brown & Williamson tobacco plant in east Macon. He believes the company chose Columbus because the building there better fit their needs.
NCR's statement says it will also move its headquarters to Duluth, bringing another 1,300 jobs to Georgia.
