Megasite multi-issues

It all sounds pretty simple, outside Haywood County... a new megasite to be marketed. But, in a series of stories here.. here.. and here.. Memphis Daily News reports on the ramifications for the community, the environment and the budget.

Vacant TNsites leverageable

Abandoned millworks and other sites will be valuable properties for economic development, Come the Recovery, according to today's story in the Times Free Press.

WTN megasite update

Rick Locker of the CA gives a full recap of the recent history of the TVA-sanctioned Haywood County megasite, for which land is now being acquired. Folks from Memphis to Jackson have big hopes to emulate the successes of the megasites at Chattanooga and Clarksville.

Megasite advances

A 1,700-acre Megasite in Haywood County, west of Jackson, moved a step closer to reality, with the vote yesterday of the State Building Commission to allow spending about $40MM for land. Gov. Phil Bredesen has previously committed to building a 20-acre solar farm on the property that's being assembled, with much of the Solar expenditure funded by Federal Stimulus funding. The Jackson Sun reports. Related: The Tennessean reports further on threatened lawsuits that could yet slow the megasite's development, if environmentalists, landowners left out of the deal and others follow through.

TN Megasite update

Tennessee's megasites have stood it well, helping win investment here by Hemlock Semiconductors, Volkswagen, and others. Despite some recent flags tossed by some politicians, officials surrounding the proposed megasite West of Jackson say they'll meet the Oct. 31 deadline for exercising land-acquisition options. Yesterday, WPLN Nashville Public Radio reported that the group and the State Department of Economic and Community Development are working hard to finalize land-configuration and -purchase details, prior to a State Building Commission next week. Related VNC story.

Bredesen's Solar Win

Gov. Phil Bredesen announced today during the annual Governor's Conference on economic development Tennessee will become a "knowledge center" for clean energy, thanks in part to the fact that $62MM in Stimulus funding has been approved by U.S. Department of Energy for creation of a Solar Institute at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville; and, for a solar industrial site in Haywood County, West of Jackson, Tenn. The Solar Institute will award innovation grants commercial and nonprofit organizations. It's all part of what Bredesen has named the Volunteer State Solar Initiative.

Megasite vote leaves W. Tennesseans pumped

The Jackson Sun reports near-euphoria (kidding) about the General Assembly's approval of funding to help develop a TVA-approved megasite in Haywood County, which is the Bredesen Administration's proposed site for a solar farm. A 3-county coalition has already formed to recruit industry, and at least one local leader plumps that, had the site been ready, his county would've been home to VW, instead of Hamilton. The Sun's site is another Ganette entity that may be slow-loading, but it's worth the read. Here's an earlier VNC story on the state's industrial parks.

Megasite gets Bredesen support

In Haywood County, not far from Jackson, a long-emerging megasite gets Bredesen-style support, hoping to follow in footstep of other TVA-certified sites at Chattanooga and Clarksville. Jackson Sun reports here. Related story on R&D, industry sites in MidTN.

More talk of additional investments

There he goes again, being upbeat in a disastrous economy. Seriously, we have to think that Bredesen ECD Commissioner Matt Kisber's relentless optimism is leading somewhere... somewhere like the megasite in Haywood County (related story), not far from Jackson. Both Gov. Bredesen and Kisber, among others, have been all-but-promising further sizeable investments, and hinting at imminent news in the wake of world-class announcements by Hemlock and VW. Jumping on the bandwagon, MidTN boosters are pitching to companies in other cities (reference Nashville's NYC trade mission). Yesterday, Kisber told a forum in Jackson that the Congressional stimulus-spending plan may enable the State to provide funds needed to complete the Haywood site's infrastructure, to make it ready for move-in. Meanwhile, it must be noted, the head coach for Tennessee's recruitment effort, Phil Bredesen, is under consideration -- alongside Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Obama transition team chief John Podesta and Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and perhaps others -- to be Secretary of HHS, i.e., according to reports from AP, Politico, The Atlantic and others.