Chattanooga Developer Offers Turnkey Buy-Leaseback Program for Volkswagen Suppliers
With Volkswagen building a $1 billion plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., scores of automobile suppliers won’t be too far behind.
The opportunity is immense. Volkswagen’s production facility in Chattanooga will produce a car designed specifically for the North American consumer. By 2018, VW predicts it will be selling 800,000 vehicles in the U.S. to become the largest European carmaker in the nation. Production is scheduled to begin in early 2011.
Wolftever Development, a subsidiary of a 36-year-old construction company founded in Chattanooga that specializes in industrial development, is offering turnkey project development services that give automobile suppliers a manufacturing head start.
“We handle the entire scope of the project, from finding the property to designing the buildings to construction to managing the property afterward,” says Matt Wood, co-owner and chief financial officer at Wolftever Development. “That leaves suppliers more time to prepare the logistics of their operations for VW.”
It all begins with site selection. Wolftever is familiar with the Chattanooga area because the company’s principals have more than 40 years of real estate experience in the 150-mile radius around the new Volkswagen plant site in the growing southern city.
VW is locating its facility in the Enterprise South Industrial park, just 12 miles northeast of Downtown Chattanooga. Enterprise South is adjacent to Interstate 75. Initial production capacity for the facility is anticipated to be 150,000 vehicles, including a new midsize sedan designed specifically for the North American market.
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