WEST POINT, GA-Kia Motors Corp., a division of Korea-based Hyundai Motor Co., has selected Georgia ahead of at least five other Southeastern states for its planned $1.2-billion, one-million-sf manufacturing campus.

Gov. Sonny Perdue's office has confirmed for GlobeSt.com Kia plans to break ground in April and have the plant open by 2009. The plant is expected to have a work force of 2,500. Kia plans to produce an average 300,000 passenger cars annually, along with an undetermined number of SUVs or minivans, sources in the governor's office tell GlobeSt.com.

The state's deal with Kia was denied by government and local officials right up to the closing of the transaction on March 12, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. Georgia sealed the deal by offering Kia an incentive package valued at about $400 million or $165,000 per job, sources in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com.

Under terms of the deal, Georgia will buy a 2,200-acre site for the plant along Interstate 85 from about 30 individual property owners for $36 million or about $16,363 per acre (38 cents per sf). At a later date, the state will sell the site to Kia for $2 million or about $909 per acre (two cents per sf), sources close to the deal tell GlobeSt.com.

The incentive package also calls for the state to build Kia a $20-million technical school at the plant site for training works; a $6-million rail spur; and improvements to the West Point interchange on Interstate 85. According to sources close to the Kia negotiators, the company chose West Point (Pop. 4,000) because of its proximity to a new Hyundia plant in Montgomery, AL; fast access to I-85; and its strategic location midway between Atlanta and Montgomery.