Alcoa could be the site of a German manufacturer’s North American headquarters.
This comes after an announcement Friday about a plan to build Alcoa a city center on 350 acres of land near the Alcoa factory.
Economic Development officials in Blount County say it’s too soon to release the details or the name of the company, but they feel pretty certain the company is coming to Blount County.
The company’s eyeing two sites near the airport including a new business park called Base Pointe and an older one off Northpark Boulevard.
Bryan Daniels, Executive Vice President at Economic Development Board of Blount County, says his board has been courting the company since 2003.
In 2005, it announced it was moving to Charlotte.
Now the company has changed its mind.
One reason for the change is the major projects on the horizon for the region, such as the Alcoa City Center. Blount County has almost a billion dollars of private money invested in upcoming capital projects.
“With all those projects, they felt we were a progressive community they wanted to be,” said Daniels.
Daniels says he’s not sure how many jobs the headquarters will create but it will be a wide spectrum ranging from professional to manufacturing positions.
With layoffs at big employers such as Alcoa, the county’s unemployment rate is now ten percent and new jobs are needed.
“Any new jobs you can bring right now will help unemployment rate in these tough economic times. Any jobs we can bring will be beneficial to our community,” shared Daniels.
The German manufacturer hopes to make its decision in three to four months. It is waiting on cementing customer contracts before making its final decision.
In the meantime, economic development officials are traveling to Germany to meet with the company and other prospects.
Source: WATE
