KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — The Knox County Commission unanimously blessed the start of "Project Emerald" on Monday — a project expected to result in around 440 people hired by 2029 at an average wage of around $75,300 per year.
Leaders said the Greenheck Group is behind the project, hoping to build its fourth corporate campus in Knox County. The company is based in Wisconsin and has teams in several states as well as India and Mexico. The company builds a variety of air movement, air control and air conditioning equipment. Its products include fans, kitchen hoods and air conditioning units.
"It's a $300 million investment, and it's over 400 people," said Rich Totzke, Greenheck Group's CEO. "We could bring customers in manufacturing locations, a corporate office, and then we're looking at some of the unique things like is there an opportunity to partner with some of the schools or some of the technical colleges, to bring education on site."
The company would establish its corporate campus at Midway Business Park, a location in East Knox County specifically designated for large corporate buildings. It also has campuses in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as well as Schofield, Wisconsin, and in King's Mountain, North Carolina.
During the first phase, the company said it would hire around 440 people at an average wage of $75, 300 per year at the Knox County site. It also said it would cost the company around $300 million to build four manufacturing facilities and three professional facilities. Those facilities would include an employee training center and a product testing and development space.
A formal groundbreaking could be expected in the fall of 2024, and the first few buildings would be completed around two years after that, according to Doug Lawyer, from the Knox Chamber.
The project is also estimated to hire 520 people indirectly, according to Lawyer.
Doug Lawyer, the chamber's vice president of economic development in Knoxville, said the area will see more traffic.
"Midway Road, Exit 402, is what I'd consider the last undeveloped interchange on I-40 in Knox County," Lawyer said. "[Traffic] was one of the draws of this location, the park is literally at the interchange of an interstate, and so that traffic in and out is about as nonevasive as you can get."
On Monday, Knox County leaders approved a Payment in Lieu of Taxes with the company. The agreement would last around ten years. In agreements of this kind, the county effectively owns the property and leases it back to the company — freezing the company's property tax rate. If the company invests more than $300 million and creates at least 440 jobs, the lease term could be extended by up to 15 years.
Through the agreement, Greenheck could get a discount of around $30,000 per acre, according to leaders. The payback period to Knox County would be around 8.8 years. The agreement still needs to go through the Industrial Development Board before going into effect.
"We feel like this is a really strong package to put in front of this company, and I'm really looking forward to the time that you guys get to meet this company in person and welcome them, officially, to our community," said Lawyer at Monday's commission meeting.
Commissioner John Schoonmaker asked an expert who spoke Monday if the PILOT agreement would "be a good deal" for Knox County.
"In my experience, working on these types of projects statewide, is the amount of tax abatement we're giving for the magnitude of the project, the wage levels, is a favorable result compared to what other counties would do," the expert said. "The company has been really good to work with in terms of not pushing the envelope and not trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the community."
The agreement passed unanimously.
The next step is now to design the campus from the ground up, and any building designs will be reviewed and approved by the Knox County Codes Administration and Enforcement. The CEO said there was an important reason why they chose the Knoxville area.
"What I would say the big difference maker was the culture and the people that we met," Totzke said. "The people of Knoxville, and the people of Tennessee are just, we think they're just fantastic people and so we're excited about the opportunity to try and become a part of that community. Because there's a really strong culture fit with our organization here in Wisconsin."