Atlanta, GA, May 1, 2006--A tax incentive bill passed by the Florida Legislature is fueling--or at least perpetuating--a rumor that Home Depot might consider moving its headquarters away from Atlanta, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The giant retailer, one of Atlanta's marquee companies, according to the newspaper, has said it has no plans for such a move. But when Florida lawmakers passed a bill to broaden tax breaks for relocating companies, several linked the move to Home Depot, according to a report in Friday's St. Petersburg Times.
The paper suggested the lawmakers got the idea from a report earlier this month in an online newsletter run by former Georgia politicos. That report cited "talk in some quarters in the Atlanta business community" that Home Depot might look for a new hometown, and it said "the word" was that Jacksonville might be a candidate.
A Home Depot spokesman told the newsletter: "There are no plans to move the headquarters. I don't know where that's coming from."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that earlier this week, Home Depot board member and retired BellSouth Chairman John Clendenin was asked about the idea at BellSouth's annual meeting. "I don't know where you're getting those rumors," he told a Journal-Constitution reporter. "I know of nothing currently that would lead to that."
On Friday, after the idea surfaced in one of Florida's major newspapers, Home Depot spokesman David Sandor said the company doesn't comment on rumor or speculation.
A late amendment to the Florida tax break bill, passed Thursday, would provide generous tax incentives to corporations that move their headquarters to the state, provide at least 1,500 good-paying jobs and make at least a $250 million capital investment.
Its sponsor, New Port Richey Republican Mike Fasano, said in a phone interview Friday that he'd be thrilled if it drew Home Depot's interest--but that he did not draft the measure with any company in mind. Fasano said he had not heard the Home Depot rumor until after the bill passed.
"If it will bring jobs and economic stimulus, including the corporate headquarters of Home Depot to the state of Florida, then I'm pleased about that," Fasano said.
The Times reported that Home Depot representatives were in Tallahassee on Thursday--but for an unrelated ceremony at which Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law a special sales tax holiday for hurricane preparedness items. Bush did not meet with the Home Depot representatives, the paper said.
Home Depot recently bought an Orlando-based building products distributor, Hughes Supply. But the seeds of the idea that it might pull up stakes at its 5,000-employee headquarters in Cobb County may have sprouted earlier.
Company co-founder Ken Langone, after the chain's 2004 shareholders meeting in Dallas, told a room full of reporters, "I would move Home Depot out of Atlanta if [chairman and chief executive] Bob Nardelli would let me," though his comment appeared to be more a jab at press coverage than a serious business proposal.
Nardelli, a General Electric alum who took the reins five years ago, has had a lower civic profile than his predecessors, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, who founded the company in Atlanta in 1978. He has overhauled top management and the company has been less involved than other large Atlanta-based firms in some corporate groups and fund drives.
But whether any discomfort among Home Depot leaders would lead to an expensive headquarters relocation is another question.
Mike Garrett, Georgia Power's president and 2006 chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, said he'd be surprised if Nardelli would push for a move "unless it made financial sense for Home Depot."
"I know Bob Nardelli well enough to know that he is not going to do anything based just on emotion," Garrett said.
