'China Hub' Airpark With 10,000 Jobs May Be Headed To SW Ohio: Cincinnati Gains From Missouri's Turmoil?

                                                   

SW Ohio In Running For Air Hub

UPDATE 11:24 am -- Tom Blumer at Bizzyblog has followed up and raises interesting issues about the use of tax incentives.  He also says Chicago already is being serviced by Chinese airfreight companies.  Blumer questions why the big media organizations  in Ohio have not jumped on this story -- to either confirm or question the project's financial viability, and also examine any potential impact on national security.

UPDATE 9/27 1:01 pm --NextSTL.com. reports a non-stop Shanghai to St. Louis cargoliner has made its first flight to Lambert Field.  But the Chinese say they won't stay in St.unless tax incentives materialize.  Ohio is still in the running for the hub.  The Chinese consul general says they will go where they get the best offer.  The story by Frank DeGraaf contains lots of new information about the project and its potential financial impact.

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican conservative who once said he was "tea party before there was a tea party," might be looking at landing the largest economic development project in recent state history.  And it all seems to be happening because of fellow conservatives in Missouri.  They are balking at approving about $400 million in state tax credits for the "China Hub," a Chinese-St. Louis air cargo corridor that is supposed to terminate at Lambert Airport.  It is envisioned as opening a massive new international trade gateway with the giant Asian economy.  St. Louis business interests and economic development officials were predicting up to 10,000 new jobs, along with warehouses and other spinoffs.  In effect, it would be a port, and it has a grand name: "Aerotropolis."  Not quite the Panama Canal, but a huge trade deal..

Suddenly, the fallout in Missouri has given Ohio an opening to grab it.  Economic development officials in Cincinnati are trying to offer the project a home in Ohio, and they are pointing to Wilmington, where DHL abandoned its giant air cargo airport two years ago.  It is sitting there waiting.  State officials are also in on the action.  The word in Jefferson City, Missouri's capital, is that SW Ohio and Denver have emerged as potential sites for the China Hub.  When The Daily Bellwether called a well-placed Cincinnati City Hall source Thursday, the source said, "We're going after this.  The Kasich people, the Chamber, we're all moving.  Is anything going to happen?  I think some doors are open to us that weren't until a few days ago.  We can give it a home in Wilmington at a place where people want jobs and an airport is empty and waiting.  Will it happen?  It seems to be up to the people in Missouri.  All of a sudden, they seem to hate tax incentives.  It's like the streetcar fight, but on a much bigger scale."