Mayor Kip Holden hopes to meet with executives from Albemarle in the next couple of weeks to try to dissuade the company from relocating its corporate headquarters from Baton Rouge. Holden says he has not been officially been notified by the chemical company that it is planning to move. However, he has spoken to numerous business leaders about the situation and fears the city’s odds of retaining the corporate headquarters are slim.
“We’re waiting to see what they’re going to do,” Holden says. “When I get through (with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) this week, I want to sit down and talk to them and see what’s what. There is a feeling there may not be anything we can do to change their mind about moving, but I think we owe each other the courtesy of a sit-down meeting, especially since I was involved in helping to bring them here.”
The mayor’s comments confirm what has been one of Baton Rouge’s worst-kept secrets for months. Though the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and Louisiana Economic Development decline to discuss Albemarle’s potential move, company spokesperson Ashley Mendoza has previously said the company is looking hard at the local market and is “evaluating the best strategic fit for our businesses and locations, including our corporate headquarters.”
She says that evaluation process began last year, when Albemarle announced it had reached a deal to acquire global lithium producer Rockwood Holdings for $6.2 billion.
“No matter what that decision ultimately is, we will have a presence in Baton Rouge, as our process development center will remain in Baton Rouge,” Mendoza said in May.
Mendoza did not respond to repeated requests for comment in recent days.
Originally founded in Richmond, Virginia, as the Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Co. in 1887, the company established a presence in Baton Rouge in 1962, when it acquired the Ethyl Corp., then one of the largest petrochemical companies in the city. Under Albemarle’s ownership, Ethyl diversified into specialty chemicals. In 1994, the company spun off its chemical business to create a new publicly traded entity called Albemarle Corporation, which maintained a large presence here but kept its Virginia headquarters.
LED lured the corporate headquarters here in 2008 with an incentives package that included $4.2 million in relocation expenses. Today, Baton Rouge is home to Albemarle’s shared services center, back-office operations and R&D operations. The company’s engineering group is also located here, as well as limited manufacturing of catalyst and bromate products.
Earlier this summer, Amedisys, another major publicly traded company in Baton Rouge, confirmed it is planning to relocate the majority of its executive team to a new satellite office in Nashville or New Orleans. The company has since confirmed it is moving employees to a new office in Nashville.
—Stephanie Riegel
