On Thursday, officials announced German chemical company Wacker Chemie is investing in a new $1 billion plant in Southeastern Tennessee’s Bradley County, and bringing in at least 500 groups.
But many people want to know why there and not in Knoxville? And what’s being done to bring similar investments here?
Just driving around the Knoxville area, you see empty lots ripe for businesses to set up shop.
“There may be a lot of space, but the main problem in our area is that there isn’t a lot of large tracts of flat land like we’re standing on right now in fact, the norm is that over there, mountainous landscape. Experts say it’s a big turn off for example for companies that want to open large plants,” explains Doug Lawyer, with the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce.
That’s why it was no surprise to Lawyer that Volkswagen and Wacker Chemie went elsewhere.
However, he says there’s a silver lining. “All of those mega projects, we are close enough that should be able to recruit some suppliers to those projects.”
In fact, the recruiting is already in motion. “We were able to go to Germany and meet with Volkswagen directly and talk to those suppliers. We continue to nurture those relationships,” Lawyer says.
The agency also has representatives across the U.S. promoting East Tennessee.
“We spend a lot of our time marketing those available shovel ready sites, as we call them, and available empty buildings, whether they are industrial or large offices to perspective companies looking at the region,” Lawyer says.
Those shovel ready sites are mostly in a 25 mile corridor called Innovation Valley, between McGhee Tyson Airport and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“The bottom line is, we are not scaling back our marketing efforts. We are out knocking on doors. We are spreading the message that Innovation Valley is a good place to do business,” Lawyer says.
Knoxville Chamber of Commerce officials say they’ve stepped up their marketing during the recession and technology companies are currently their biggest targets.
6 News also spoke to Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale on Thursday about attracting more businesses.
“First and foremost, we must have ample, prepared land available as well as a qualified workforce. We are proud of the fact that over the past year, Knox County has had the state’s lowest unemployment rate,” Ragsdale says.
“Our challenge is not necessarily to recruit every large business, but to also grow existing businesses, create new technology-based jobs and to continue to recruit companies like Sysco Corp., Green Mountain Coffee, Tennessee Steel and others,” Ragsdale adds.
Source: WATE
