It's official! Tiger backs out of Jasper
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

In an short letter sent late Monday, July 2, Tiger Truck has finally closed the book on Jasper.

The letter from Michael S. Ward, Chief Executive of Tiger Truck, states, "After careful consideration of all issues, recommendations and commitments, our position remains unchanged from our correspondence dated June 21, 2007. We appreciate your efforts to resolve the problems, but we have decided to not move to Jasper."

Ward was expected to contact Mike Bruce, the owner of the former LP plant, on Friday, June 29 but failed to contact him.

While Ward has pointed to environmental issues at the plant site, Bruce believes there is another reason for Tiger Truck's quick decision to leave Jasper.

"I think what this all boils down to is that I believe Mr. Ward does not have the money to make this deal go through," Bruce said during a telephone interview Friday, June 29. "I have suspected for the last six weeks that there was something wrong with the equity on his part. It looks like he is using the environmental issues to get out of coming to Jasper. As far as I'm concerned, it is a no go."

Bruce said he offered, during a phone conference on Thursday, to financially take care of any environmental issues on the property.

"If they wanted to start assembly on trucks tomorrow, they could," Bruce said. "I even offered to do a lease purchase agreement on the property until all the environmental issues were taken care of.

"I have tried to call him several times (Friday)," Bruce said. "I am not putting a lot of faith in Tiger Truck right now."

The Jasper Newsboy interviewed Ward prior to his meeting on Thursday. At that time, Ward appeared ready to close the door on Jasper but also left it cracked open slightly.

"I cannot see how all the issues can be put to bed in a timely manner," Ward said in a telephone interview Thursday, June 28. "But I just can't seem to slam the door on Jasper.

"We have some issues with the real estate," Ward said. "There are timing issues involved and things that have to be done. There are some environmental issues on that property that it appears to us and our legal council that will take too long to get resolved."

"I think the number one issue now is that ChangAn Motors wants some production dates met and (Ward) believes that can't be done here," said Jasper Economic Development Corporation Director Tom McClurg. "Unless he can literally get into a facility that has a good outlook at closing in the near future without environmental concerns that will be hard to get done."

The first issue that is being disputed in the deal is whether Ward and Tiger Truck were aware of the environmental concerns at the plant site.

Ward said he was not aware of the environmental issues at the plant site when the two parties entered into a contract for the site.

"We don't hold Mr. Bruce at fault," Ward said. "He bought the property with an environmental disclosure letter from LP and we entered into a contract with him using that letter. That environmental disclosure letter from LP is grossly incorrect."

Ward said the plant has two major issues, one deals with asbestos and the other with underground fuel tanks.

"These issues put a cloud on the title of the property," Ward said. "If Tiger ends up not coming to Jasper, it boils down to LP not disclosing problems at the plant site."

But Bruce said the environmental issues at the plant should not be an issue.

Bruce said the LP report issued on the property lists asbestos in the boiler.

"It's not in violation and the boiler is remote from the buildings that they were going to run their assemblies through," Bruce said. "It should not be an issue as far as anybody is concerned."

Bruce said he met with Ward in Jasper last week before Ward's trip to China to meet with ChangAn executives.

"When he left, he said everything was a go," Bruce said. "He said there were no problems at all. Then we received the email from China. Something definitely happened in China to change his mind.

"As far as I knew, our deal was still going on as planned," Bruce said. "All of a sudden, they just pulled out."

Bruce said he has lost a considerable amount of money over this deal going south. He was using the warehouse to store paper for several paper companies.

"When this deal started, we had to shipped all that paper out of there and we lost all of our customers over the deal," Bruce said.

Ward admitted that Tiger Truck is looking into other cities' proposals for the plant but "no commitment has been made to anyone of them."

"Before we selected Jasper, we spent months and months on this and not all of those places are available," Ward said.

He said the plant has to be up and running by the beginning of the year in order to meet the production needs of the ChangAn automobile company.

Ward said the decision to possibly close the book on Jasper was "devastating."

"I was looking for a house down there," Ward said. "But I have to do the best thing for this company."

Jasper County Judge Mark Allen said he was disappointed by Tiger's decision but pointed to one bright point on the issue.

"I have to say at least Jasper County did create its first actual tax-abatement policy out of this endeavor, so we have come away with something to encourage future business development," Allen said.

Bruce said there are alternative plans set for the plant site.

"I know it is devastating to the city of Jasper because of the loss of the potential jobs but the plant site is still a bright star up there," Bruce said. "It's not the end of the world. That facility has a lot of possibility and we may end up with a better company than Tiger in there. This is not as devastating as it appears."