Tronox Leaving OKC

[OklahomaNick]

The city of Stamford can expect an infusion of up to 100 new jobs in the next three years as Tronox Inc., a global mineral company, establishes its corporate headquarters in the city.

To facilitate the company's move from Oklahoma City to Stamford, the state will provide Tronox with a $3 million loan. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is expected to announce the deal today. The job creation will come as part of the company's $10 million capital investment in the state.

Tronox has opened its headquarters but is still in the process of moving into 30,000 square feet it is leasing at 1 Stamford Plaza. The offices in Oklahoma City will remain be in use, primarily functioning as research and development labs for the company's production of titanium oxide pigments.
"Now under new leadership, Tronox is quickly overcoming past challenges and is looking to its future in the global minerals industry with great optimism," Malloy said in a statement. "The national economic downturn forced companies to think more strategically, and many are re-evaluating their locations. Businesses are looking around and they are realizing that Connecticut is open for business."

The state Department of Economic and Community Development will grant Tronox the 10-year, $3 million loan with an interest rate of 2 percent, which will be used for equipment and job training needs. If the projected 100 jobs are created and retained over a three-year period, the company could have the loan forgiven, according to the DECD.

The company may also be able to receive benefits through the Job Expansion Tax Credit and Enterprise Zone programs.
In considering the relocation of its headquarters, Tronox vetted 10 major metropolitan areas on three continents, narrowing the contest to London, England, and Stamford.

The latter was primarily chosen for its talent pool, proximity to financial services, transportation access and the state's incentives, according to Tom Casey, chairman and chief executive officer of Tronox.

"Establishing our international headquarters in Stamford marks an important milestone for Tronox," Casey said in a statement. "I thank Governor Malloy and the people of Stamford for their support, and we look forward to being an active part of our new community."
Aside from creating new jobs, Tronox has also pledged its involvement in the Stamford community, Mayor Michael Pavia said.
"In addition to the selection process and the jobs that are being added, the third huge win is that the company intends to be a good corporate citizen," Pavia said.

Tronox's global presence and status will also add to Stamford's profile as a business center, said Laure Aubuchon, director of economic development for the city of Stamford.

"It's a further diversification of our economy, which is great," she said.
The company also released details of an agreement to acquire the mineral sands operations of Exxaro Resources in South Africa and Australia, a move that Tronox's stockholders approved on May 29. The acquisition of Exxaro's business will be consolidated with Tronox's operation under a new holding company, Tronox Ltd., in Australia.


Read more: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news...#ixzz1x1rc7q9n

[OklahomaNick]

Sorry it needs to read Tronix HQ leaving OKC.
Article Says some Research and Development might stay..

[Pete]

Wow, that stinks.

BTW, they've been out on 150th & May for some time.

[OklahomaNick]

I would be curious to know what their actual employment numbers were here in OKC.
I never heard anything about them potentially moving, but I knew their CEO was kinna an East Coast guy.

[Pete]

OKC has it's own aggressive job incentives plan and if Tronox is growing, they could have received similar local incentives.

So, this was clearly not based on simple economics, especially when you consider Stamford is one of the more expensive places to live and do business (at least from an office space standpoint) and OKC is at the opposite end of the spectrum.

[OklahomaNick]

Yeah, it must have been for personal reasons. It is VERY expensive to live in Connecticut.

Here is a snipit from another article:

"As part of its 100 jobs agreement, $2 million of the principal portion of Tronox's loan will be forgiven if the company creates 60 full-time Connecticut-based jobs in its first year of operation. The company has the potential for full forgiveness of the loan if the 100 jobs are created and retained within three years."

It looks like OKC may have only lost at or below 60 jobs. The 100 jobs was only a promise after 3 years.

[Steve]

Guys, this is no big loss. The white coats stay here. Tronox has been an OKC company in name only for the past couple years...

[Pete]

Perhaps Steve but if OKC was on the other end of this and getting a 30,000 sf international HQ with high paying jobs, we'd be doing cartwheels.

Maybe this has been coming for a while but it still represents a loss.

[Bill Robertson]

When I left K-M Chemical Corp., which became Tronox, there wasn't 30,000 sq feet of office space at 150th & Portland or enough to house 60 or 100 employees. I think they're going to add quite a few jobs to meet the Conn. requirement. If I'm right OKC won't be losing many jobs if the R&D Center stays put.

[Steve]

Meh.

[adaniel]

OKC also just lost the QEP Energy Midcontinent Headquarters to Tulsa. I knew quite a few that worked there and most just found new jobs within OKC instead of moving. I imagine a lot of people with Tronox will do the same.

Obviously a loss in jobs stinks, but you win some, you lose some. Just the nature of business. I'm much more concerned with OKC being an ideal place to start/maintain small businesses, which have been shown to create jobs at a much better pace than big companies.

Besides, aren't we in line for 1,000+ jobs with Boeing?

[White Peacock]

Isn't it Tronox that just opened up a new facility in the old AT&T call center at Memorial and Portland (behind McAlister's)?

[Just the facts]

Tom Casey certainly had some shady business dealings when he was with Global Crossing.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/busin...sing_3-21.html

[White Peacock]

Isn't it Tronox that just opened up a new facility in the old AT&T call center at Memorial and Portland (behind McAlister's)?

Nevermind the above; I just realized they're the place on the north of 150th, with the ridiculously huge campus.

[Spartan]

Nothing to see here. Move along everyone. Did you hear we're getting a new convention center? And Devon just built a tower, that makes up for losing a bunch of companies and jobs.. Yay OKC

[onthestrip]

Kind of funny that they are moving from a relatively low tax state to one of the highest. I mean, if you ask Gov Fallin, tax rate is the only thing companies look at when looking to relocate. In her opinion it has nothing to do with quality of life or access to educated employee field.

[Pete]

One of their big issues was access to international flights, due to have multiple plants spread across the globe.

But, I know they strongly considered Dallas and still landed in Connecticut. Dallas is almost as cheap as OKC, so clearly the leaders of this company just wanted to be back east for other reasons than pure economics.