States Offer Dow Incentives to Move Out of Michigan

Five months after Dow Chemical Co. announced a potential merger with DuPont, several states are attempting to sway Dow to move the company from its Midland, MI hometown, an article by Crain’s Detroit Business and Bridge Magazine reported Tuesday.

“Other states are courting Dow and putting in offers,” said an unnamed source who spoke to Bridge said. “I am sure that the business community of Midland is very concerned – as they should be.”

The source, who spoke under a condition of anonymity, told Bridge that Dow is receiving incentive offers to move its operations and jobs to other states.

On Tuesday, a Dow spokeswoman refuted the allegations in an interview with Bridge and Crain’s Detroit Business, referring to the offers from other states as “rumors.”

“Dow has repeatedly expressed its commitment to the community of Midland,” Rachelle Schikorra, the Dow spokeswoman, told reporters. “The new materials science headquarters will remain in Midland. We’re building a new corporate center. You can see our commitment in steel in the ground.”

Tax credits are a major way that states woo large corporations to relocate there. The article pointed to Texas as a potential player in the courtship of Dow, where the company currently employs 7000 people in a Freeport, TX facility. Louisiana, where Dow has 6000 employees was viewed as another potential suitor. Indiana, where Dow Agrisciences is located, was viewed by the authors as another candidate.

As the merger between Dow and DuPont makes its way through regulatory approval channels, Dow has continually stressed that it plans to remain in Michigan.

“Dow’s going to be here,” Dow’s Vice Chairman and COO Jim Fitterling told the Midland [MI] Daily News. “We’ve always been here and we’re committed to the community, so there shouldn’t be any questions on anybody’s minds about our commitment to be here.”

You can read the full text of the Bridge/Crain’s Detroit Business article here.