Making incentives pay.

• Position: Western

President Barack Obama stopped by Linamar Corp.'s Arden factory in February to stump for the goals set forth in his State of the Union address. He used its story--Volvo Construction Equipment North America LLC abandoned the plant in 2010, laying off 228 workers, but Linamar bought it only a year later and restarted production in 2012--as an example of how government investment can revive manufacturing. The president pointed out that such a comeback in Asheville seemed unlikely when Volvo departed. "Then local officials started reaching out to companies, offering new incentives to take over this plant." Canada-based Linamar, which makes auto parts, has already announced capital and job expansions at the 405,108-square-foot factory for which it received another round of incentives. But local and state officials had lined up expansion incentives for Volvo in 2006, and that didn't keep the Swedish company in Arden.

Linamar Volvo 650 Jobs 265 Jobs $200 million $30 million capital investment Capital investment $20.3 million $7.6 million Potential incentives from city...