The state of Tennessee combines geographic advantages with a business atmosphere conducive to growth to attract expanding and relocating companies.

Logistically speaking, the state, home to the headquarters of seven Fortune 500 companies, is within a day’s drive of 75 percent of the United States.

While state officials realize that garnering new business is essential, supporting existing industries is just as essential.

Existing businesses and industry are the source of nearly 80 percent of new jobs and capital investment, according to Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development, and the state nurtures the growth and development of those companies through grant and loan programs, technical assistance, and work force development programs.

There is a high level of cooperation among state and local officials, chambers of commerce, development boards, and business leaders to create an environment that is ideal for expansion projects.

This partnership was evident as Eastman Chemical Co. announced it would invest more than $1.3 billion during the next five years to upgrade technology, infrastructure and production capabilities at its manufacturing facility in Kingsport.

The plan, called Project Reinvest, calls for the company to spend an average of $265 million annually and will potentially lay the groundwork for future expansions.

The project will also initiate a partnership between Eastman and Northeast State Technical Community College to develop curricula and implement training programs for mechanics, lab analysts and chemical operators.

Eastman Chemical officials said the announcement means the company will remain an important driver of economic growth in the region.

“This initiative is one of the most sweeping capital reinvestments in the history of our company,” said Brian Ferguson, chairman and CEO of Eastman Chemical. “It is a major recommitment, not just to our operations, but to the broader community and especially to our employees and customers.”

The state of Tennessee has included $1 million in the current fiscal year budget to launch the job training partnership between Eastman and Northeast State, with the understanding that workers trained by the program will be available to other companies in the region and that “best practices” from the partnership will be shared with other higher education institutions across the state.

This training partnership aligns a ready and willing work force with access to real world skills demanded by business, said state Rep. Nathan Vaughn of Kingsport.

“That will mean greater productivity for Eastman and make the region more attractive to other companies,” he said.

Educational Company Locates HQ in Nashville

The Nashville metro continues to draw relocating headquarters operations, a trend that has been growing for the decade.

Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), which provides curricula for home schools and church-based Christian schools, has moved its corporate headquarters to Nashville from Tampa, Fla.

ACE will employ 250 workers in Nashville, including 100 at the corporate headquarters and 150 to be hired at a future distribution facility. The corporate headquarters will be staffed by 62 employees making the move from Tampa and another 38 to be hired locally. The company's headquarters will be located in the former Memorial Hospital building in Madison.

“Nashville makes sense for us for several reasons,” said Greg Mutsch, executive director of business administration for ACE “Logistically, this moves us closer to our customer base and gives us a central base with a great airport and interstate system that will allow our staff to more easily visit schools across the country and internationally. We also wanted to locate in a city with a welcoming spirit and a moderate cost of living, and Nashville exceeded our expectations in those regards.”

Founded in 1970 in Garland, Texas, ACE assists local churches in starting Christian schools, providing K-12 curriculum and staff training. The ACE curriculum and program are used in more than 6,000 Christian schools in 138 countries, providing services to more than 1 million students a year. In addition, Lighthouse Christian Academy is a ministry of ACE and serves thousands of home school students around the world.

Every year, ACE starts more than 500 new schools internationally, which are served from 13 distribution centers around the world.

AmMed Direct, a Medicare-approved provider of direct-to-consumer specialty products and services for people with diabetes, is moving to a new 122,400 square foot corporate headquarters to accommodate its rapidly growing business.

The building, which AmMed owns, is almost six times the size of the company's former headquarters location in the metro. Special features include the most advanced telephonic technology available in the market. Customer calls are routed to specific agents based on Caller ID recognition with account information being displayed automatically as the call is being answered.

In addition, the building has a large distribution pharmacy with the capacity to fill 5,000 prescriptions daily. State-of-the-art conveyor belts and robotic dispensing equipment allow AmMed to ship diabetes maintenance prescriptions to its customer base in a timely manner.

“This new building is symbolic of how much AmMed has achieved in the past four years and how much we expect to grow in the future,” said Tom Milam, general manager for the company. “The size of our new headquarters, and especially its technological features, will allow AmMed Direct employees to work more efficiently and effectively, which in turn will allow us to better serve our customers. This new headquarters building also reflects our commitment to Nashville. We are very proud to be a part of the city's vibrant health care industry.”

Expansions in Knoxville Metro

Nebraska-based Crete Carrier will invest $5.4 million and bring 50 jobs to a new trucking facility next to Interstate 40 in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley of Tennessee.

Karel Znamenacek, executive vice president of Crete, called the site in Roane County, west of Knoxville “the perfect location for us -- next to Interstates 40 and 75, where a lot of our trucks operate.”

The 16-county Innovation Valley has received high marks for its logistics capabilities. The University of Tennessee-Knoxville campus is home to a nationally recognized logistics and supply chain curriculum.

Znamenacek said the new site will include a maintenance operation, office and numerous amenities for drivers.

“There’ll be an eight-bay drive through maintenance facility for servicing trucks and trailers,” he said. “The office staff will work with drivers and recruit new employees. And there’ll be numerous services for truckers, including a lounge, lunch room and even a bunk room.”

Crete has 5,700 trucks and 13,000 trailers nationwide and is a truck load carrier.

“That means we don’t offload,” Znamenacek said. “Our business is picking up product at a customer and delivering a full load to the destination.”

He estimated that an average of 75 trucks a day will use the Roane County facility.

The Roane County Commission approved rezoning the land from commercial to industrial, which was necessary since Crete’s new facility will include refueling. The 26-acre site next to the Roane Regional Business and Technology Park was sold in a private land deal that took place without any publicly funded incentive package. Tax collections from Crete are expected to add some $42,000 per year to Roane County’s tax rolls.

Leslie Henderson, president and CEO of the Roane Alliance, called Crete a “national company with a reputation for being a good corporate citizen.”

Construction has begun on the first bio-diesel plant in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley.

Northington Energy’s $3 million facility near Wartburg in Morgan County will convert soybeans into fuel. Company officials also announced they will use the facility to work with Volkswagen and Suzuki on an engine testing program involving highly refined bio-fuels for auto racing.

Lisa Horn, a spokeswoman for the company, said the facility in Flat Fork Business Park is “good for the environment, farmers and consumers.”

Green is big in the 16-county Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley. The region hosts bio-energy research at the University of Tennessee, at nearby Oak Ridge National Lab and at the National Transportation Research Center.

In addition, a $100 million joint venture bio-production facility in Loudon was dedicated earlier this year. The joint venture by DuPont and UK-based Tate & Lyle has begun converting corn into bio-PDO, an environmentally friendly substance used to make carpets, clothes and cosmetics. In a separate part of the Loudon plant, UK-based Tate & Lyle produces $60 million in ethanol yearly.

Northington Energy’s new plant is part of an overall effort to bring jobs and capital investment and improved educational opportunities to Morgan County.

Roane State Community College announced it is building a campus in Wartburg. Economic development officials have worked with the Tennessee Valley Authority to develop Flat Fork Business Park into a low environmental impact property aimed at attracting environmentally friendly businesses. Morgan County is also cooperating with Roane and Cumberland Counties in developing a 1,000-acre Plateau Partnership Industrial Park near Interstate 40.

In Memphis, Smith & Nephew’s has decided to build a new distribution center at the Memphis Logistics and Technology Center (MELTECH). The 210,000 square-foot, Class A warehouse/distribution facility will be constructed on 37 acres of land at MELTECH, which Smith & Nephew acquired from Belz Enterprises.

The new DC will be the largest Smith & Nephew distribution facility in the world. The facility will be taller and more modern than the existing Smith & Nephew facility, and it will be climate controlled for the surgical orthopedic products. The facility will also have a 1,200 square foot clean room designed to eliminate dust particles to avoid contamination of the surgical products. Back-up generators will also be installed in case of a power outage.

“This is going to be our largest distribution facility in the world, and we are pleased to partner with Belz on this project,” said Bill Griffin, senior vice president of global operations for Smith & Nephew. “This is going to be the world’s premier distribution facility of its kind with a fully automated inventory system and other state-of-the-art amenities.”

Construction is scheduled to be complete by the summer of 2008.

MELTECH is a 233-acre development, characterized by attractive building facades and landscaped grounds. Occupants include UPS, Vital Records Control, PODS Modular Systems, Fairmont Industries and the local hub for Xtra Lease Intermodal.

Tennessee Goes For Mega-Sites

The state of Tennessee, by legislative action, has made it easier for cities and counties to work together to develop sites attractive to companies with plans to invest in new plants and create new jobs. The legislation allows for the creation of regional mega-site authorities to access state programs designed to help fund the creation of infrastructure like roads and utility access.

The law sets up an orderly, transparent process through which counties and cities can enter into cooperative agreements to establish mega-sites, while allowing members of the public to provide input to that process. Communities who want to create these sites now have clear guidance about how to go about it.

“I believe this effort will make Tennessee more competitive in attracting large-scale industrial investment,” said state Rep. Craig Fitzhugh. “It gives cities and counties a mechanism for cooperating on a regional scale, sharing in both the costs of development and the benefits of new jobs and investment.”

The legislation defines a mega-site as an industrial site of “generally 1,000 contiguous acres in size” and establishes governance by a board of directors consisting of the mayors of each county or municipality participating in the effort, along with a member of the industrial development boards of each participating community.

In addition, two non-voting members may be selected by the U.S. Representative in whose district the site lies and by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Each director will serve a two-year term without compensation. The legislation requires each mega-site authority to file an annual report with the state board of equalization and to provide an economic impact plan defining the boundaries of the mega-site and detailing how costs and revenues will be apportioned among the participants. A certificate of incorporation will be issued by the secretary of state creating the mega-site authority.