Chattanooga city government plans to enter into a $2.25 million agreement with EMJ Corp. for the company to administrator contracts related to the construction of Volkswagen’s new plant.
Lee Norris, the city’s deputy administrator of public works, said there will be a lot of construction and other contracts signed related to the building of the $1 billion plant over the next couple of years.
He said the city doesn’t have the staff to administer the contracts, but EMJ does.
The local construction company will maintain records and keep the contracts in proper order, Mr. Norris said. The funding for the EMJ agreement will come from state grant funds, he said.
Steve Leach, the public works administrator, told the city’s Industrial Development Board that workers continue to aim for a Nov. 1 start date for construction of the plant to begin.
About 65 pieces of heavy equipment are on the Enterprise South industrial park site as workers prepare the 1,350-acre tract for construction, he said.
“You can only have so many people on one site,” Mr. Leach said. “We’ve got as many people packed into one area as we can.”
An estimated $150 million in state grant money for VW’s plant has started flowing into the project. An agreement in principle between the city and Hamilton County and the automaker call for roads, railway lines, sewers and a fire hall to be built to support the plant.
VW is building the 1.9 million-square-foot plant to build a new sedan designed for American motorists. The plant is to start production by early 2011 and make 150,000 cars a year.
Mike Pare, the deputy Business editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, has worked at the paper for 27 years. In addition to editing, Mike also writes Business stories and covers Volkswagen, economic development and manufacturing in Chattanooga and the surrounding area. In the past he also has covered higher education. Mike, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida Atlantic University. he worked at the Rome News-Tribune before ...
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