EADS Executives Seeking to Build $600M Aircraft Assembly Plant in U.S.

In search of a location for a $600 million aircraft assembly plant, a group of EADS North America executives toured a site next to Charleston International Airport on Monday.

Their boss, Ralph D. Crosby Jr., was not among them.

Then again, the chief executive officer has been to Charleston before -- many times before, it turns out.

Call it a case of happenstance, but Crosby has deep personal connections to the Lowcountry, including a vacation house and relatives who live in the area.

"He has a lot of ties here," said David R. Oliver Jr., a retired rear admiral who runs EADS North America's military aircraft division.

But Oliver also said those factors won't sway the company's decision in either direction.

"At a company this size, you don't make decisions based on where you own a house," he said.

Oliver led an entourage of 22 executives and consultants Monday who swooped down on the Charleston region to take a closer look at one of the four U.S. sites his company is considering for two major investments.

The Arlington, Va.-based company is committed to opening a 100- to 200-employee aircraft engineering center next year. "That's going to happen -- period," Oliver said.

The bigger prize is a 900- to 1,000-employee aircraft plant it would build at the same site if the company wins a contract to replace Air Force refueling planes with modified Airbus 330 jets.

EADS North America, which is part of Airbus owner European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., narrowed its list of finalists this month to North Charleston and three other cities: Melbourne, Fla., Mobile, Ala., and Kiln, Miss.

Oliver said the company will weigh a host of factors before selecting a site in late June, including local road systems, deepwater port facilities, public schools, labor availability, tax incentives and financial assistance.

The fact that the boss owns a home in the Lowcountry -- in this case, in Wild Dunes -- won't tilt the odds in Charleston's favor, he added.

"I have a home south of Atlantic City, but that community is not in this competition," Oliver said.

Crosby's ties to South Carolina and the Lowcountry go way back and remain strong. He was born in the Upstate and won an appointment to West Point in 1966 through then-Sen. Strom Thurmond.

His late father, Walterboro native Ralph D. Crosby, was a Clemson University graduate who rose to the rank of colonel in the Army.

He also was deputy commandant of The Citadel for 13 years, starting in 1966.

The CEO's mother still lives in Charleston.

In addition to Crosby's Wild Dunes getaway, one of his brothers lives on the Isle of Palms. Their mother, Anna Margaret Salley Crosby, said she'd like to see the engineering center and aircraft plant built at the airport site because it would give Ralph Crosby Jr. an excuse to visit Charleston more often.

"They keep him pretty busy with that job," she said Monday.

South Carolina's proposal was among more than 70 that EADS North America received from 32 states earlier this year. Oliver and his inspection team are scheduled to visit Florida today, followed by fact-finding trips to Alabama and Mississippi on Wednesday and Thursday.

In a highly unusual move, EADS North America elected to go public with what normally is a highly secretive process, partly because "you want to make sure that everybody thinks it's fair," Oliver said.

"You're bringing in a whole bunch of top-level jobs," he said. "It was our opinion we did not want it to appear as if we cut some deal. Inherently, competition works out. It works out to our advantage. We have four different places and we expect them to compete with each other to say, 'You can get the best commercial deal here."

EADS also wanted to avoid speculation and rumors, said state Commerce Secretary Bob Faith.

"The company wanted us to be able to be here today to make sure the right story gets out," said Faith, who would not discuss the value of the incentives the state is offering because of the competitive nature of the bidding. "A lot of time with these big economic development projects, a million different stories get out -- oftentimes none of them even close to the truth."

The aircraft maker is waiting for the Defense Department to reopen the bidding later this year on a contract to replace KC-135 Stratotankers.

The Air Force is expected to pick a manufacturer for the initial order of 100 jets in early 2006, Oliver said.

If France-based EADS lands some or all of the $9 billion tanker job, it plans to assemble Airbus jets at the planned U.S. plant.

An American partner, said to be defense contractor Northrop Grumman, would open a conversion factory at the site, where the planes would be outfitted with aerial refueling systems and other military equipment.