News

Haywood County site certified as megasite

July 7, 2006—Haywood County, Tennessee, announced today that a 1700-acre site in the county has been certified by McCallum Sweeney Consulting (MSC) of Greenville, S.C., as a megasite, or large industrial property suitable for a major automotive manufacturing facility or related industry.

The site, know as the I-40 Advantage Auto Park, is located just north of Interstate 40, 20 minutes east of the Memphis, Tennessee, suburbs. The site is easily accessible from Memphis, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Jackson, and other West Tennessee cities. It is adjacent to U.S. Highway 70/79 and the CSX Railroad on the north.

Based on its expertise as a site selection consultant for the automotive industry, McCallum Sweeney Consulting (MSC) was commissioned by the Tennessee Valley Authority as an independent source to evaluate sites submitted by communities in TVA’s service area. MSC established comprehensive certification criteria and a detailed process to evaluate potential properties.

“Today’s companies, especially in the automotive industry, are under enormous pressures to make better site selection decisions,” said MSC Senior Principal Ed McCallum. “The certification of the I-40 Advantage Auto Park site in Haywood County is a great addition to the region’s catalog of sites that are ready to meet the stringent demands of an automotive assembly plant.”

The I-40 Advantage Auto Park site meets the MSC criteria required for certification, including the availability of land that has sufficient contiguous and developable acres, infrastructure, utilities, and labor capacity.

MSC has certified a total of seven megasites in the Tennessee Valley.