Nissan to Leave Southland
After nearly half a century of calling Southern California home, Nissan North America is preparing to call it quits.
The company is scheduled to announce in Nashville today that it will relocate its corporate headquarters and 1,300 jobs from Gardena to a growing automotive center in central Tennessee. Nissan already has more than 6,500 employees at its largest U.S. assembly plant in the Nashville suburb of Smyrna.
Company representatives declined to comment, but Associated Press reported late Wednesday that Tennessee state Rep. Glen Casada had confirmed that the announcement was to be made jointly by Gov. Phil Bredesen and top Nissan executives at a news conference in the state Capitol. Neither Casada nor Bredesen could be reached for comment.
Separately, a Nashville-area real estate industry insider, who asked not to be identified for fear of jeopardizing his job, told The Times late Wednesday that a major regional developer, Crescent Resources, planned to announce today that it had signed Nissan to an office leasing deal.
Representatives of Charlotte, N.C.-based Crescent could not be reached. The company is developing a 1-million-square-foot office complex called Cool Springs in Tennessee’s fast-growing Williamson County, 15 miles south of Nashville and about the same distance from Nissan’s manufacturing headquarters in Smyrna.
The Times also obtained a copy of an e-mail sent to employees in Gardena late Wednesday, notifying them of an important announcement from Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn to be broadcast on the company’s internal television system at 9 this morning.
Ghosn heads the Japanese automaker’s North American Management Council, which ended a three-day meeting in Hilton Head, S.C., on Wednesday and was expected to reach a decision on whether to relocate.
The move, which is not expected to take place before next summer, could hurt the ability of economic development groups to woo new business to Southern California.
“It is always painful to lose an important corporation,” said Jack Kyser, senior economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. His group was part of a multi-agency team that tried to persuade Nissan to stay. The company began its U.S. operations in Los Angeles in 1958.
“We have more than 4 million nonfarm jobs in Los Angeles County, so it’s not going to throw the economy into a tailspin,” Kyser said.
“But they are very highly paid jobs,” he said, referring to the affected Nissan positions. “And the loss of a corporate headquarters is something that other states will be able to use against us” in recruiting businesses.
The relocation has long been anticipated -- a study of the benefits of moving to the Nashville area was begun nearly a year ago after Ghosn launched a global effort to reduce administrative and operating expenses.
Nissan would find it economical to move because wages and the cost of fringe benefits in the Nashville area are lower than in Southern California, where housing and other costs are much greater than in the South, relocation specialists said.
Additionally, Nissan would probably save on office and utility costs and could reduce overall employment by combining many of its headquarters’ administrative and support jobs with similar positions at its manufacturing headquarters about 20 miles southeast of Nashville.
Relocating would place the company’s North American headquarters near its principal operations: the Smyrna assembly plant, a 1,300-employee engine plant in Decherd, Tenn., and a 4,100-employee truck and minivan plant in Canton, Miss.
Although Nissan may be leaving, Southern California remains home to a hefty slice of the U.S. auto business.
Eight other Asia-based automakers have U.S. or North American headquarters in Los Angeles and Orange counties, including the two largest -- Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.
Additionally, the U.S. headquarters of Ford Motor Co.’s import brands -- Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover and Volvo -- are in Irvine, and almost every automaker selling in the U.S. market has an advanced design studio in Southern California.
Nissan is expected to leave its North American design center and about 100 designers and engineers in La Jolla.
Disgruntled employees loath to move from Southern California to a region that refers to itself as the “buckle on the Bible Belt” had been lobbying for months to stop the relocation.
Word of the then-secret relocation study was first reported by The Times in September.
Insiders have said that Nissan expects as many as 1,000 of its 1,300 headquarters staff to resign rather than relocate. Many have been job hunting for weeks, inundating other Southern California automakers and consulting firms with resumes.
