MG plans downshift
Automakers' consolidations puts Ardmore deal on hold
MG plans downshift

By Paul Monies

Published: October 10, 2007

But Norman attorney Marc Nuttle, who formed Oklahoma Global Motors LLC with China's Nanjing Automobile Group Corp., said he still hopes the project will get a green light from the Chinese government by the end of the year. Nanjing is merging with larger rival Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.

"Right now, they're in restructuring mode, and I don't know what they're going to do,” Nuttle said. "They merged with Shanghai, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's not Oklahoma's or the Chickasaw's fault; that's the state of international business.”

The MG auto plant was to be north of Ardmore on tribal land owned by the Chickasaw Nation and next to the Ardmore Airpark. The project was expected to create up to 500 jobs, including several in Norman and Oklahoma City.

Nuttle stopped short of calling the MG deal dead.

"They still contact me on a regular basis to let me know they're still interested,” Nuttle said of his Chinese partners. "There's nothing I can do to help them until they restructure the company.”

Nuttle said an upcoming Chinese Communist Party conference — which opens next week — may provide some clues to the direction of the restructuring effort in the Chinese automobile industry. There are more than 127 Chinese auto manufacturers, but the Chinese government wants just eight, Nuttle said.

He said other possibilities for Ardmore wouldn't be dismissed while the MG project is on "indefinite hold.”

"We're talking to other companies, and there are companies that would like to come here, but the MG brand was a key component to the business plan,” Nuttle said.

Nuttle made his remarks at Global Fusion Oklahoma, an international business conference being held this week in Oklahoma City.

Nuttle said as coastal ports get increasingly congested and unable to expand, the next wave of logistics will be the development of inland ports that connect air, rail and roads.

"We are trying to develop one of the top air cargo just-in-time manufacturing/assembly/distribution warehousing centers in the United States in Ardmore, Oklahoma,” Nuttle said. "It's an old military base that the state and city of Ardmore put millions of dollars into to bring it up to scale as a ‘Class A' world cargo airport.”

Wes Stucky, president of the Ardmore Development Authority, said TTK Construction Co. has been awarded the $14,085,000 bid to build a runway extension at the Ardmore Airpark to accommodate freight planes.

That money came from a $15 million grant from the state's Opportunity Fund, an incentive program passed in 2006 to close economic development deals. Nuttle's Oklahoma Global Motors received a $5 million, short-term loan from the Opportunity Fund for start-up costs on the MG project. The company repaid that earlier this year along with $102,779 in interest.

Stucky said other improvements are being made at the airport for water lines and roads. Construction is expected to start by early 2008, he said.

Nuttle said Ardmore officials also have held preliminary discussions with railway operator BNSF Railway Co. to connect the airport with the railroad's expansion plans in Dallas.

"We'd be part of the Chicago-Dallas route for loading and storage,” Nuttle said. "What we're trying to do is coordinate in a national distribution system and find our place. BNSF is being as cooperative as they can, but they've made no commitments.”

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