Arnall Golden Gregory partner John L. Gornall Jr. has been a facilitator of the Korean invasion of Middle Georgia.
Gornall and other AGG lawyers have advised four separate Korean companies on negotiating economic incentives for their new manufacturing plants in Middle Georgia. The AGG attorneys have also advised the companies on sundry other matters, including real estate, supplier contracts and environmental permits. The plants will supply the Kia Motors Corp. manufacturing facility under construction near West Point.
Hyundai Mobis will build a 310,000-square-foot plant to supply assorted auto parts to Kia. Glovis will build a 558,131-square-foot plant to provide auto parts and provide logistics services. Both the Hyundai Mobis and Glovis facilities will be located on the site of the Kia plant.
Dongwon Autopart Technology is building a 120,000 to 150,000-square-foot plant in Meriwether County where it will build door frames, side impact beams, roof molding, side absorbers and cross bars. And Kumho Tire Co. is building its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Bibb County. Kumho will supply not only Kia, but other automotive manufacturers located in the Southeast, Gornall said.
With all four clients, AGG teamed up with the law firm Kim & Chang of Seoul, South Korea.
AGG was able to nab the clients because of the firm’s previous work on behalf of the state of Georgia in its talks with Kia, Gornall said. The Kia plant, to be located off Interstate 85 about three miles east of the Alabama state line
, will assemble small sedans and is expected to be fully operational in late 2009. It will be Kia’s first manufacturing plant in the U.S.
Although there was no formal, written agreement between Kia Motors and the state of Georgia that Kia’s suppliers would locate in the state, it has ended up that most suppliers have picked Georgia, Gornall said.
“One thing that I’ve been impressed with, Kia just had a gentlemen’s agreement with the state in that they would urge their suppliers to locate in Georgia,” he said. “They have certainly done that.”
Gornall noted that the state of Alabama offered competitive incentive packages to each of the Kia suppliers that AGG represented.
AGG’s work involved a stew of legal practices. Economic-development lawyers must be familiar with the law of commercial real estate, taxation, local governments, labor and employment, public finance, corporate, immigration, environmental, government regulations and contracts, among others.
“We have to know enough about all of this to be dangerous,” said AGG partner Andrew J. Schutt, who worked with Gornall advising the Korean suppliers.
One of the largest tasks has been negotiating supply contracts with local water/sewer providers and with railroads, Schutt said.
AGG of counsel Hyun-Zu “Yonni” Kim, who is fluent in Korean, was also involved in the negotiations.
Although he couldn’t name names, nor would he say whether AGG was working on the deals, Gornall did say that these aren’t the last of the overseas Kia suppliers who will locate in Middle Georgia. More announcements are coming, he said.