Nippon Paint Announces $60 Million Investment in Facility at Former Harriet Tubman Site

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – – A Japanese owned automotive paint company is building a $60 million dollar facility on the old Harriet Tubman housing site in Chattanooga.

The investment by Japanese owned Nippon Paint, the 4th largest paint and coatings manufacturer in the world, was announced at a news conference this morning.

The company plans to start work on a 270,000 square foot facility in the first quarter of next year. The paint plant will eventually employee 150 local workers.

The former Harriet Tubman housing site has been vacant for several years, but work was being done behind the scenes to attract just such an investor.

“The re-development of this site has been a long time coming, and there’s really been, I think a tremendous commitment between the city and the community to see good things happen here, and really, I think hopefully to set off what will be a long term strategy, around kind of reinvigorating East Chattanooga,” said Charles Wood, Vice President of Economic Development for the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce.

But City Councilman Anthony Byrd says now that a large investment has been made at the site, it’s time for the community to step up and get ready to fill those jobs.

“It’s an amazing venture, but it’s not going to be as amazing as we’d like it to be if the community is not ready. So I just implore, ask all of the activist groups, all of the social groups, fraternities, sororities, we have to now start to prepare the people for what’s to come,” said Chattanooga City Councilman Anthony Byrd, of District 8.

Nippon Paint CEO Tetsuro Fujita, explains why the company chose this particular site.

“Main reason we selected Chattanooga was, the one team proactive approach offered by city, county, state, and TVA,” said Tetsuro Fujita, President and CEO of Nippon Paint.

And Mayor Andy Berke says it was also about a local workforce.

“They really wanted a chance to be in a neighborhood and have access to a workforce, there were other cities that gave more lucrative incentives,” said Mayor Andy Berke.

The jobs will pay an average of about $15-$16 dollars per hour.

Charles Wood says, one of the next big steps is working with the neighborhood on workforce training to get future employees ready for the jobs.