Audio clip
Bill Payne
Public spending to help Volkswagen build its $1 billion auto assembly plant in Chattanooga is expected to stay within budget, officials said Tuesday.
The city, Hamilton County and the state are providing hundreds of millions of dollars in grants for VW to construct its plant.
With completion of the massive building project in view, the spending of the grant money is expected to be on target, officials told the city’s Industrial Development Board.
Infrastructure and other grants for the VW project are slated to total more than $229 million, figures show.
That’s part of the record $577.4 million that state and local governments offered in assistance and tax breaks to the automaker over 30 years to build the auto assembly plant, officials said.
Steve Leach, the city’s public works administrator, cited the staff of the public entities along with VW for keeping spending within budget as the opening of the plant is slated for early next year.
He said staff and VW did “a lot of value engineering” to curb costs.
“They looked at what made economic sense,” Leach said at a meeting of the panel that is overseeing most of the public spending on the project. “The staff has done a great job making sure the money is there.”
City Engineer Bill Payne said that while some spending is under budget, there are other packages under consideration. For example, he cited a VW proposal to use methane gas from a landfill near the plant to help power the factory.
Payne said VW has indicated it will fund overages if there are any.
Richard Gibbs of Thompson Engineering, who gave an overview of VW training center spending, said there is money remaining in the $40 million budget.
But he said there’s a possibility more training equipment will be needed out of that amount.
VW plans to hire over 2,000 workers for the plant, which is to produce a new midsize sedan.
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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