State Steps Up to Spur Investment in Rural Areas
Published Aug 25, 2008
ThyssenKrupp Waupaca Inc. is expanding its facility in Etowah in McMinn County, doubling its size and adding at least 100 jobs.
Rolling hills and sweeping vistas are hallmarks of the Tennessee countryside, and they’re also prime spots for business expansion and investment opportunities.
Tennessee’s non-urban communities are getting a helping hand from Gov. Phil Bredesen’s Rural Opportunity Initiative, a three-pronged approach to local economic development.
Among the initiatives:
• “Orange Carpet Tours” that prepare local officials for corporate site-selection visits.
• A series of tax incentives for companies that invest in the state’s rural areas.
• The Rural Opportunity Fund, a new line of capital for businesses in the state’s non-urban areas.
“The incentives and other programs that make up the Rural Opportunity Initiative are in their early months, but there seems to be a significant amount of interest from both communities and companies,” says Matt Kisber, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development. “I suspect that over the course of the next year, we’ll see a number of successes across the state.”
Those successes include:
• ThyssenKrupp Waupaca breaking ground on a $162 million expansion to the company’s Etowah operation in Southeast Tennessee, doubling the size of the current facility and adding more than 100 jobs.
• Fluid Routing Solutions adding 169 jobs as it consolidates its U.S. operations and expands its plant in Lexington in West Tennessee.
• Aisin Automotive Casting Tennessee investing $67 million to double the size of its plant in Clinton in East Tennessee and add 160 jobs.
“We will have more than 650 employees once the expansion is at full capacity,” says Junichi Komada, executive vice president for Aisin, which makes functional engine components in Clinton for the auto market.
“State and local officials have been extremely helpful in finding and obtaining excellent incentives for locating in Tennessee and for the current expansion plan,” Komada says.
Vifan USA Inc. has begun construction on a $72 million facility in Morristown in East Tennessee. The producer of polypropylene sheet film began operations in Morristown in 1998 and will add 120,000 square feet and a second line of production to its operations, for a net gain of 55 jobs.
The combination of state incentives and available programs from the Tennessee Valley Authority also landed Fischer Tool & Die, which is building a $45 million plant in Tullahoma in southern Middle Tennessee. The maker of die-cast tooling solutions went through an “exhaustive” site-selection process, and Tennessee brought much more to the table than its competitors, says J.J. Fischer, chief financial officer.
“There were a lot of communities in Tennessee that we were attracted to. From the local level on up, everyone knows how to attract and win businesses,” says Fischer.
Auto parts manufacturer Arvin Sango looked at 20 locales before deciding to build a $10 million plant in Henderson that will make exhaust systems for the new Toyota plant in Mississippi.
“The city and state had a lot to offer as far as incentives, but Tennessee also has great infrastructure as far as roads, so we’ve got a straight shot to the Toyota plant,” says Dan Baughman, executive vice president and secretary/treasurer.
These successes and diversity of companies bode well for the Rural Opportunity Initiative, which Kisber says will be constantly fine-tuned.
“What has led Tennessee to the success that we have enjoyed over the last few years is that we have been extremely responsive to the needs of our customers,” he says. “We will continue to maintain, first and foremost, that focus on providing value to our communities and our companies.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Todd Bennett
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