Volkswagen's Chattanooga Plant, One Year Later

One year ago today, Chattanooga landed a key component in the city's future economic development.

It proved to be the sound heard 'round the town on July 15, 2008 when Stefan Jacoby from VW announced "the Volkswagen group is building its factory, in Chattanooga, Tennessee."

The growing automotive metropolis at Enterprise South stands as visible proof of the progress made in just one year's time.  Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield says "its amazing to me how its only been a year and yet we have a building that's rapidly taking shape, a sight that's dramatically changed, with millions and millions of cubic yards of earth that have been moved."

Over the last year, the automaker has also completed 50-percent of its paint shop... started work on the body, assembly, and training facilities... and hired nearly 100 workers.  April Wortham, Community Relations for Volkswagen, says "look at it in the context of a year from now, we'll be well on our way to more than 2,000 employees."

So what can we expect over the next year? Well, the county will be working to improve access to the plant. Right now Enterprise South Boulevard doesn't connect to Exit 9 of Interstate 75.  Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey says "we've got a little section between where Enterprise South Boulevard ends and this road comes in, its about a half mile to connect."

The county also needs to get started on building a rail yard, while the city needs to upgrade several roads leading to the plant and construction a new fire hall.  As for V-W itself?  Wortham says "I think this time next year we're really going to be in the troughs of training the people we have on board."

Wortham also says late this year, VW will start accepting applications for production and maintenance jobs, and begin hiring for those positions in early 2010.

Volkswagen has already awarded some $436-million in local contracts, putting people to work, before the first car rolls off the line.

And - what of the car to be built here?  The new, still-unnamed mid-sized sedan is the only product that's planned for Chattanooga at this point.  But, VW admits it designed the plant with future expansion in mind.