Lee Erwin reporting
lerwin@clarksvillenow.com
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – There was a special session of the Clarksville City Council Monday, October 14 with only three items on the agenda. Two of those items dealt with the announcement earlier in the day that Hankook Tire Company will be locating in the Clarksville-Montgomery County Corporate Business Park.
The City Council unanimously passed a resolution for the City of Clarksville and Montgomery County Government to enter into an internal sale agreement with the Industrial Development Board for just over 468 acres in the Business Park. The property is located in an area bound by I-24, International Boulevard and Rossview Road.
Hankook Tire will invest $800 million in the new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and create 1,800 new jobs in Clarksville-Montgomery County. The company is expected to break ground on the new plant by the end of 2014 and begin production of high performance radial tires by 2016.
What seems to be one of the questions many people are asking is when will the company start hiring employees? Mayor Kim McMillan talked about when those new jobs could be available. “We believe it’s probably going to be within the next calendar year that they will start the hiring process,” said McMillan.
The other resolution passed by the City Council involving Hankook Tire building in the Corporate Business Park was approving an interlocal site location and development agreement. That agreement was between the City of Clarksville, Montgomery County, the Industrial Development Board, the State of Tennessee and Hankook Tire Company.
The only other business taken up by the City Council at Monday’s meeting was approving the purchase of what’s known as the Waterworks Building and property at 808 South Riverside Drive. All of the council members supported the ordinance with the total amount of costs related to the purchase of the property estimated to be $225,000.