By Shannon Cavanaugh
Contributing Writer

With a building in the Charleston area and a need to move production, speculation has arisen that DaimlerChrysler could be moving its Sprinter van production here.

It may or may not, according to the company’s director of corporate communications for North America, Han Tjan.

Recent media reports cite unnamed state officials and sources providing media with information on a deal to entice the giant automaker’s Sprinter production to Charleston and boasting of it as one of two major port cities under consideration again. Stories cite everything from the state offering a “generous” incentive package to a possible $750 million Sprinter plant and 2,200 jobs.

Tjan teetered between frustration and concern, saying he “could not verify,” and “those details are inaccurate and not confirmed with my office.”

“We are looking at many different sites, quite a wide selection, across the U.S., and all the accusations don’t help,” Tjan said.

The only fact confirmed is the need for an existing building.

“It’s very important to have an existing infrastructure on the location we choose,” Tjan said, and the size of that building would determine the production level and number of jobs.

That is one mark in Charleston’s favor. DaimlerChrysler owns an existing 460,000-square-foot building in Ladson, which currently houses American LaFrance, a producer of custom-built fire trucks. Freightliner LLC, the parent company of American LaFrance and a part of DaimlerChrysler, announced earlier this year it is selling American La France, but not the building.

According to a press release in September, the company was to transfer about half of those jobs to plants in New York state and Wyoming beginning in October.

However, Tjan said the divestment of American LaFrance has not yet taken place and said there is no set schedule. He also said there is no timeline on when Daimler Chrysler will select a location for the new Sprinter production facility.

“We want to research without pressure,” Tjan said. “We understand people are eager and want a quick decision. But you would have thought Charleston would have learned a lesson. The same thing happened in Georgia last time when the story took a life of its own.”

The Sprinter plant did not locate to Georgia in 2003, as was highly anticipated and reported as an “on-again, off-again suitor” for a site location in the small town of Poole at the intersection of Interstates 16 and 95. The local newspaper, Savannah Morning News, reported that the plant would add 3,000 jobs and $150 million to the local economy as the largest single economic development project in the state. Instead, the community was left with a day-old newspaper and DaimlerChrysler putting the project on hold.

Currently, DaimlerChrysler makes Sprinter vans in Germany and at a plant in Gaffney. Demand for the diesel-powered vans has doubled. The Sprinter, sold under the Dodge brand, get 25 miles per gallon, but Tjan said that is not why the van is so popular.

“It’s the competitive price, space efficiency, practicality and a good dealer network,” he said.

Government officials with South Carolina who are willing to go on record said, “no one from the media called us” about recent reports. S.C. Department of Commerce spokeswoman Clare Morris and Joel Sawyer, spokesman with the Governor’s Office, would not confirm a visit between Gov. Mark Sanford and DaimlerChrysler officials in September or even that South Carolina is under consideration for the production plant.

“We do not know who the unnamed state officials are that gave these unconfirmed details, but the information did not come from us, and we can’t verify anything that was reported,” said Sawyer. “We do not comment on the ongoing economic development process. That’s our policy.”

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