Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant will be 1.9 million square feet, about double the floorspace of TVA’s multistory downtown office complex, officials said Tuesday.

The plant will hold assembly, paint, body and press shop operations as well as administrative offices, said Betsy Hurner, corporate marketing manager for Ohio-based SSOE Inc.

Contributed Rendering
This is an artist’s drawing of what a Volkswagen plant planned for Russia will look like.

The company was picked by VW to oversee engineering, architecture and construction management of the $1 billion plant as it goes up at Enterprise South industrial park in Tyner.

Ms. Hurner said the VW plant will be smaller than the 2.4 million-square-foot facility that Toyota is building in Tupelo, Miss., which SSOE also is designing.

The company also is working on German automaker BMW’s 1.2-million-square-foot addition in Spartanburg, S.C., she said.

Ms. Hurner said the company expects to bring about 30 people to Chattanooga during peak construction. The company has a Nashville office of about 50 people, she said.

The company will partner with Environmental Resources Management for the environmental permitting process and Alberici Constructors Inc. of St. Louis for the construction management of the facility. ERM also has offices in the Nashville area.

“The selection of these environmentally focused companies underscores our commitment to sustainable development,” said David Geanacopoulos, executive vice president and general counsel, Volkswagen Group of America, in a statement. “We look forward to partnering with these exceptional companies in the coming months as we build an environmentally responsible production facility in the U.S.”

According to VW, environmental responsibility is an integral part of its business.

The company’s primary goal is to find solutions that make sense, both economically and ecologically, and to use resources efficiently while minimizing environmental impact, the automaker said.

SSOE has performed design work for half of all automotive assembly plants built in the United States over the last 10 years.

VW spokeswoman Jill Bratina said the automaker issued a request for proposals for the project. One of its specifications was that firms had worked with original equipment makers in the past.

Craig Bowie, a SSOE senior vice president, said officials are excited about its first opportunity to work with Volkswagen.

“We look forward to a long relationship,” he said.

Alberici is a top five construction manager of auto facilities in North America and a leader in building sustainable manufacturing facilities. The St. Louis-based firm has completed more than 22 so-called green building projects.

Work on the plant is to start before the end of the year. Production is to begin by early 2011.

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