Last year no one in Chattanooga's resident work force had ever built a car. Today more than 2,000 local workers are producing the 2012 "Motor Trend Car of the Year" - the all new, Volkswagen Passat.
Transforming a work force without automotive experience into one capable of winning the industry's most prestigious award with the very first cars they have ever made - that's a dramatic illustration of the cooperative partnership Chattanooga establishes with companies to ensure the success of those that invest here.
Chattanooga also supported Volkswagen in establishing the world's first LEED Platinumcertified auto assembly plant, while meeting an aggressive two-and-a-half-year construction schedule. We also helped them attract more than 20 suppliers to the immediate area.
Home to America's Fastest Internet and Smartest Smart Grid
Chattanooga is also grabbing national headlines for completing America's first and only communitywide, 100 percent fiberoptic network capable of delivering up to one gigabit per second Internet speeds to every home and business in a 600-square-mile area. The same infrastructure is also being used to deploy the nation's most advanced, automated, interactive, and self-healing Smart Grid.
Thanks to this highly advanced infrastructure, Chattanooga companies, which have always enjoyed highly reliable and costeffective power, also have the advantage of an additional 40 percent reduction in power outage minutes. At the same time, the Gigabit Passive Optical Network delivers such fast data speeds that companies that rely on the transfer of large amounts of data or highresolution images are experiencing significant productivity gains, while allowing their employees to work from home or distributing their work force without missing a beat.
Assets for Office, Energy, Food and Beverage, and More
Chattanooga is the headquarters of major insurance companies like Unum, major logistics companies like U.S. Xpress, and major food and beverage makers like McKee Foods (Little Debbie).
Major investments by energy-sector companies like Alstom ($300 million), Westinghouse ($20 million), Schaaf Industrie, and Wacker Chemie ($1.5 billion in neighboring Bradley County) have established the area as a major force for that industry. Being home to TVA's power control headquarters also gives Chattanooga-based energy companies added synergies.
Chattanooga's advanced telecommunications and data infrastructure has helped create nearly 1,000 new customer service and data center jobs in the last three years, including the 140- seat HomeServe Customer Care Center. In announcing its investment, HomeServe officials said that Chattanooga's data and technology solutions were the deciding factor.
French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis has also recently invested in the area through the acquisition of Chattanooga-based Chattem for $2 billion. Chattem - which is a maker and marketer of over-the-counter health and beauty products like ACT mouthwash, Flexall, and Goldbond - served as Sanofi-Aventis' point of entry into the American market through the highly successful launch of Allegra as an over-the-counter medication this past year.
Your Information Source
The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce serves as the economic development organization for Chattanooga and Hamilton County. We offer full site selection services including RFI response, coordinating community visits, assistance with identifying potential sites, incentives negotiation, and project management. Contact us for more information.
Location Profile
Connect
Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce
Steve Hiatt, Economic Development
811 Broad St.
Chattanooga, TN 37402
423-763-4333
Fax: 423-763-4044
