Local, State Officials Work to Keep Nissan in Southland

Los Angeles County business development officials are devising plans -- including possible tax breaks -- to persuade Nissan Motor Co. to keep its North American headquarters, and its 1,300 employees, in Southern California, rather than move them out of state.

“We held our first planning meeting last week,” said Greg Whitney, vice president of business development for the nonprofit Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

If Nissan left the state, “it would be a minus for us” because it would send a negative signal about the area’s business climate to other companies, he said.

The “strike team” includes representatives from the governor’s office, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Southern California Edison, the state economic development department and the Gardena and South Bay economic development agencies.

Two weeks ago, The Times reported that Nissan was studying a move out of Southern California as a cost-saving measure, citing sources inside and outside the company.

The study stems from Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn’s global drive to slash the company’s operating overhead costs. The Times report said Nissan was considering moving some or all of its Gardena-based sales, marketing, distribution and advertising staffs to its manufacturing headquarters in Smyrna, Tenn., near Nashville, or to its finance arm’s service center near Dallas.

Nissan chose the South Bay of Los Angeles County for its headquarters when it first entered the U.S. market in 1958. Its Gardena headquarters is within a few miles of the U.S. headquarters of Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

Southern California now is headquarters to all but one of the 11 Asian automakers doing business in the U.S.

Nissan executives have declined to comment publicly about the relocation plan. On Sunday in New York, Ghosn dismissed reports that the company might move its North American headquarters as “rumors and speculation.”

But on Monday, Ghosn acknowledged the relocation study in a speech to employees in Smyrna, according to several Nissan workers in Gardena who viewed his remarks on a closed-circuit broadcast. Ghosn told workers that a decision on the North American headquarters location would be made by the end of November, they said.

Nissan also has sent employees in Gardena an e-mail message acknowledging the relocation study. The message, a copy of which has been obtained by The Times, said the study “is part of our ongoing efforts to take advantage of synergies, to increase efficiencies and to add value.” It added that no final decision had been made.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told Bloomberg News that his office had contacted Nissan and offered to provide any assistance that could help “inform the company’s decision-making process.”

Whitney, of the Economic Development Corp., said local officials were still working on their incentive package and had not yet contacted Nissan.

Although significant tax breaks would require legislative action, local agencies could provide Nissan with job training and recruitment programs, reduced business license and other fees, and improvements to ease traffic around its headquarters, he said.

Separately, Nissan said Monday that it would add more fuel-efficient cars to its U.S. lineup next year and might follow with diesel-engine models. Nissan will introduce a car smaller than the Sentra compact for the U.S., as well as a new Sentra, Ghosn said. A gasoline-electric hybrid version of the Altima sedan will come later in the year.

Nissan shares closed Monday at $22.29, up 26 cents.