State authorizes $14M for industry
The State Funding Board approved more than $14 million in infrastructure and job development money for four projects across Tennessee.
The board approved $9.6 million for auto parts supplier Denso Corp.; $2.5 million for the Northwest Tennessee Regional Port Authority; $1.2 million for a new Colgate-Palmolive Co. toothpaste factory; and $1.1 million for the expansion of a Johns Manville Corp. building materials plant.
Matt Kisber, the state?s commissioner of economic and community development, had to get funding approval Wednesday because the projects each exceed the $750,000 ?fast track? amount he has authority to grant independently.
Denso in December announced a $185 million, 220,000-square-foot expansion of its Maryville assembly operations that are expected to add about 500 jobs by 2010.
Kisber said the state is spending nearly $5 million to level a hill next to Denso?s existing 1.5 million square foot facility.
?This is not only a good project for today, but it also bodes well for further expansion opportunities as this site because this work could allow for additional expansion,? he said.
The state is also working to add another electric transmission line to the plant. The state is kicking in an extra $1.75 million in jobs training money for the project.
The expansion is the largest in the 15-year history of Denso Manufacturing Tennessee, which supplies components to all major automakers. The company employs about 2,500 workers in Maryville and another 900 at a sister plant in Athens. Denso also operates a joint venture with Toyota Boshoku Corp. in Jackson that employs 465 people.
The state is also involved in a project to shore up the site for the new Colgate toothpaste factory in Morristown. Colgate in January announced its plans for the 150,000-square-foot facility in the Morristown Airport Industrial District that is expected to employ more than 220 people.
Colgate?s total investment in the plant will be about $55 million, Kisber said.
About $110,000 of the $1.1 million incentives for the expansion of the Johns Manville plant in Etowah are for jobs training, while the remainder is slated for water, wastewater and drainage improvements at the site. The expansion is expected to create about 290 new jobs, Kisber said.
The commissioner told the panel that the state investment in the Mississippi River port at the tip of Northwest Tennessee is seen as a regional investment in an economically distressed area.
Promoters say the Lake County port will attract industry and bring in badly needed jobs. U.S. Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., has said federal funding could help create up to 3,000 jobs in a largely rural area centered on Lake, Dyer and Obion counties.