Business Facilities - February 2009 - (Page 30)

CORPORATE MOVES Tennessee U.S. Marble Sites Southeast Distribution in Johnson City Hemlock (Continued from previous page) U .S. Marble, headquartered in Remus, MI, has announced plans to locate a new distribution facility serving the southeastern states in Johnson City, TN. The company has purchased a 65,000-square-foot facility (former the location of Snap-on Tools) located at 2416 Watauga Road. According to owner John Bishop, the company plans to initially hire 10 to 15 employees when the business begins its operations in April. U.S. Marble’s product line includes vanity tops, tubs and showers, window sills, and floor tile used in residential construction and renovation. Bishop said that as U.S. Marble sales volumes grow in the southeastern states, the Johnson City location will take on some manufacturing and fabricating business, though that will come through organic company growth and not as a relocation of its Michigan operations. “From looking on a map and evaluating the highway system and Johnson City’s central location to serve eastern and southeastern U.S. markets, we felt that this is the perfect site for our expansion,” Bishop stated. n CRETE CARRIER EYES NEW MAINTENANCE CENTER C rete Carrier Corporation, one of the largest privately owned trucking companies in the country, has announced the building of an $8.4-million maintenance center in East Tennessee. If things go well, the project could be done as early as summer 2009. The facility will be located in Roane County on the former Atomic Speedway site off of Interstate 40. According to the nation’s truck drivers in Overdrive magazine’s Highway Report Card, Interstate 40 in Tennessee has been ranked the best road in the FEBRUARY 2009 U.S. for the third year in a row. Originally set to add 40 to 60 jobs, Crete now looks to hire 388 people within three years after the trucking firm’s center is built. “It’s a much, much larger employment commitment than we had thought at first,” said Leslie Henderson, president and CEO of the Roane Alliance, which leads the county’s economic development efforts. The center will consist of an 8,000-square-foot office and a 10bay maintenance area. And according to Crete Executive Vice President Karel Znamenacek, Jr., the ing a significant player in the development of ‘green collar’ jobs related to clean energy technologies,” said Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. “With this announcement, Hemlock Semiconductor and Dow Corning have signaled a major shift in the direction of Tennessee’s and the nation’s economies.” Bredesen noted that it is not simply the immediate creation of new jobs but the ability to attract related industries and suppliers to the state and region. Manufacturing spin-offs appear likely as HSC manufactures one-third of the world’s polysilicon supply for solar cells. And according to researchers, every manufacturing job adds at least 3.5 workers to the service or retail sector. Bredesen hopes this is just the beginning and says, “Announcements like Hemlock’s have gotten the attention of the renewableenergy sector. Let’s take the steps necessary to move from a single announcement to the development of an entire industry in Tennessee.” average wage for workers at the new facility will be $16.67/hour. Longrange plans call for 40 to 50 trucks to leave the facility everyday. Headquartered in Lincoln, NB, Crete Carrier started in 1966. The company has 5,700 trucks, 12,999 trailers and more than 6,000 employees. 30

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Business Facilities - February 2009

Business Facilities - February 2009 Contents First Word Snapshots Corporate Moves: Ohio Governor's Report Growth Magnets Industry Focus: Automotive International Report: Luxembourg Corporate Moves: Tennessee Cream of the Crop in North Carolina Advertiser Index Ask the Expert

Business Facilities - February 2009

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