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What's up with Trace?

From the Midland Development Corporation July 25 Agenda:

Consider a motion authorizing the President of the Midland Development Corporation to negotiate and execute an amendment to the existing economic development agreement between the Midland Development Corporation and Trace Engines, L.P.; said amendment may modify or reduce the employment and/or letter of credit obligations of Trace Engines, L.P. under said agreement or other terms of the agreement.

This agenda item is kind of vague, and could mean anything.

Which brings up an interesting point, why aren't potential changes to an existing economic development agreement publicized before the meeting? It isn't like there is some "potential economic deal" to protect. In essence, the MDC is considering a material change to a public funding agreement and it would be nice to know what the potential change is and what precipitated that change.

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10 Comments

I think that it is a safe bet that the effort to 'renegotiate' here would necessarily have been initiated by Trace Engines.

And it is an even safer bet that they are not initiating a renegotiation because they are over-performing on the current agreement.

Bingo.

My money is on not meeting the minimum employment timetables for various and sundry reasons. I wonder if they have contacted the Governor's office to renegotiate their TEF agreement too?

Yep. My guess is that they simply can't meet their end of the bargain, and are looking to negotiate, presumably to avoid a default of some degree.

so?? Just like any start-up things may take longer to materialize. If any of you were interested you could have attended the meeting. Did anyone? Just curious. Or, is it easier to just blog and wonder out loud.

If we are left without a trace ,how will we know?

Well, I guess we will see just how easy it is to blog and wonder out loud when the reports of the meeting are published.

And, while it could well be that Os and Walser are wrong about the nature of the renegotiations, does anyone want to bet against them on this one?

I might attend, however on Friday mornings I have to tend to my regular job, as opposed to my "high paying" blogging career.

But let's look at the criticism anyway.

First, TRACE isn't exactly a true start-up. Their engine design goes back to the 70's and was commercialized in the late 90's after an estimated $100M in development and certification costs. A lot of the expense of a true "start-up" was absorbed by Canada's Magellan Aerospace and other previous owners of the engine design.

TRACE is basically a manufacturing, marketing and distributing company, not a start-up. Besides, from all their press they are shipping engines, so what is to materialize?

All I'm doing is asking the questions any investor would ask of the companies in which they invest. I have heaped plenty of praise on TRACE and the MDC in this endeavor, so I would like to have some re-assurance that the problem is just finding employees in a hot local economy, because if that isn't the reason the deal is being renegotiated, then that is a very bad sign.

I owned a large steel fabrication shop here for many years. About every week we would get video tapes in the mail, or industrial development recruiters would show up to visit. Never once did we ever see requirements to hire a certain number of workers by a certain date. Never once were we questioned about our financials. Most incentives for relocation involved free electricity, gas, and water for the first two years, then discounted services for the next ten years. These cities offered buildings leases paid for ten years and then offered to us for one dollar at the end of the term. The list of goodies went on and on. There are too many strings attached in Midland-Odessa. Eventually I sold out to a man who instantly moved the plant to another city. I would urge the MDC and ODC to get in step with other cities.

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