LA GRANGE, GA-Despite denials from the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Kia Motors Corp., a division of Korea-based Hyundai Motor Co., has been considering a site near this Troup County city for a planned $1.2-billion assembly plant. The plant would employee 2,500 employees, according to industry sources who have followed the company's growth plans.

However, a Georgia Department of Economic Development representative tells GlobeSt.com talk of Kia selecting Georgia for a new manufacturing site is "pure speculation" and "wishful thinking." Still, industry sources confirm Kia has been scouting sites for the past year in Chattanooga, TN; Decatur, AL; Aiken, SC; Meridian, MS; and Hopkinsville, KY.

LaGrange, with an estimated population of 30,000, is about 66 miles southwest of Downtown Atlanta. Nearby West Point has also been mentioned in industry circles as a potential Kia manufacturing site.

"Kia is polling the Southeast for the best economic incentive package it can get," an industry source in a position to know tells GlobeSt.com. "Right now, the talk is that Georgia is offering the company the best deal, a multimillion-dollar package that the other cities so far haven't matched."

The same source tells GlobeSt.com Georgia is "anxious to get a deal done" because of bad luck in the past two years in interesting other auto makers to select the state or remain in Georgia. Ford Motor Co. is closing its Hapeville plant this year and General Motors is closing its Doraville manufacturing facility by 2008, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. In two overtures in 2002 and 2003, Georgia was also unsuccessful in convincing DaimlerChrysler to build a van plan in Pooler rather than in Charleston, SC.