Category Archives: Business recruitment

Will Sears choose Tennessee for new HQ?

The race to win Sears Holding Corp. appears to be heating up.

NBC in Chicago and the Detroit Free-Press are reporting that Tennessee has intense competition for the retail giant’s corporate headquarters, saying Michigan is working to lure Sears’s headquarters with incentives worth about $50 million, including tax breaks, housing incentives and relocation grants.

Besides Tennessee, New Jersey, North Carolina and Texas reportedly also are in talks with Sears about a possible relocation.

No word on where in Tennessee the Sears folks would locate. Could Knoxville be on the short list?

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Will Tennessee continue to attract new business?

Tennessee’s business recruitment effort has had a good run in the last few years under the leadership of Gov. Phil Bredesen.

Volkswagen’s new billion-dollar manufacturing complex in Chattanooga is nearing completion. Wacker Chemie AG plans to invest $1 billion in Bradley County and Hemlock Semiconductor expects to spend as much as $2.5 billion on a new plant in Clarksville, just to name a few of the state’s big scores.

Will Gov.-elect Bill Haslam keep the trend going?

Read more on the challenge facing the new administration in my Sunday column in the News Sentinel.

Lots happening at Forks of the River

Cornell Dubilier Foil’s reopening of the former Panasonic aluminum foil plant in Forks of the River Industrial Park continues a run of good news coming out of the park.

Several other plants at the East Knox County park have seen significant investment or otherwise done well in the last couple of years, including Melaleuca, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, PSC Metals and House Hasson, says Doug Lawyer, director of economic development for the Knoxville Chamber.

 

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Tennessee good for biz, magazine says

Tennesseeis the third best state for business on Chief Executive magazine’s Best/Worst States for Business 2010.  That’s up from No. 5 last year.

Texas and North Carolina were the top two for 2010. The magazine rated states on taxation, workforce and living environment.

For what it’s worth, three high tax states — California, New York and Michigan — anchored the bottom of the list.

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What’s up with Knoxville’s biz recruitment effort?

Site Selection Magazine released this week its rankings of the states and cities with the best economic development efforts in 2009.

Knoxville was nowhere to be found.

Tennessee, on the other hand, ranked No. 5 among the states and Memphis and Morristown were both in the Top Ten in their respective categories.

What’s up with that? Has Knoxville’s business recruiting effort fallen on hard times?

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