Old A.O. Smith building lands another business
Probably the most frequent business-related questions I’ve been asked in recent months pertain to the old A.O. Smith building. The questions go something like this:
‘ ‘Whatever happened to that business Billy Wood, Rickey Minton and David Hill were starting in the A.O. Smith building’?
‘ ‘Did the deal fall through’?
‘ ‘When are they ever going to get that bio-whatever plant running’?
OK, so you get the gist. To make a long story short, Billy, Rickey, David and the crew are working hard to get the A.O. Smith building ready to roll for their business, Tennessee Soy. They are hopeful to begin setting up their biodiesel equipment in May and the excitement surrounding this business venture is genuine.
In addition to Tennessee Soy, which will only need about 50,000 of the 269,000 square feet in the building, three other businesses have leased space there.
If you recall, I told you about Middle Tennessee Information Management, operated by Ryle Chastain, about a month ago. It’s a medical and professional records storage business.
Taylor Truck Brokers has also moved into the facility after leaving its longtime location in Mt. Leo. The business is owned and operated by Jay Slatton and his wife, Elbia, who bought it about two years ago from Carolyn Taylor.
‘Our trucks ship out all over the country,’ said Jay, who indicated he works will all types of truck operations from independent to small fleet to large fleet. ‘We had a good year and one of the reasons we decided to move into this building is we’re looking to grow.’
Jay and Elbia have spent most of their professional careers in the logistics business. Jay has done that type of work for GE, Bausch & Lomb, and Overnite Trans/ Union Pacific Corp. Elbia has worked in logistics for American Greeting Cards, Hagar Apparel, and Celedon Trucking. In other words, the two have experience and know what they’re doing.
Jay said their new spot in the old A.O. Smith building is a significant upgrade from their former Beersheba Street location.
‘We like it here because it’s more centrally located and it’s closer to highways,’ said Jay.
‘And the ease of truck parking is better,’ Jay continued. ‘The parking lot here is huge.’
To get in contact with Taylor Truck Brokers, the phone number is 473-1531.
For those of you counting at home and wondering about the fourth and final business that has signed a lease to locate in the old A.O. Smith building, the deal was finalized just days ago and I will tell you about that business in the coming weeks.