Toyota Subsidiary to Open Tennessee Plant

Toyota Motor Co. subsidiary Bodine Aluminum Inc. will build a $124 million aluminum engine-parts factory in Jackson, Tenn., that will employ 200 people, officials announced yesterday. The company estimates that its total investment in the plant over 20 years will total $373 million. The plant will cast molten aluminum into engine blocks that will be used by all of the company's North American engine plants.

In return for investing $124 million and creating 200 construction jobs and 200 permanent plant jobs, the company will get about $6 million in local property tax abatements. The state will pay for site improvements, which will benefit the entire industrial park, not just Toyota's 200-acre tract, said officials from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. In addition, the company will get a $400,000 job creation tax credit from the state, and the state will assist in job training.

There is a silver lining beginning to appear around all the dark economic clouds that have been hovering over economic development. A number of the business investment deals that have been in the que are being finalized. We reported earlier on project announcements in Texas, Kentucky and other states. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this continues.

Go here to read more about the Toyota project in Tennessee.