CLARKSVILLE, Tenn.—Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. CEO Seung Hwa Suh are expected to be on hand Thursday, Oct. 9 for the ceremonial ground-breaking of Hankook's $800 million car and light truck tire plant near Clarksville.
Hankook picked the 469-acre site in the Clarksville Corporate Business Park last October after evaluating dozens of potential locations throughout the southern U.S., the company said at the time.
The plant is scheduled to start production in 2016 with up to 1,200 employees in the first phase of manufacturing. Site preparation work has been under way for several months, according to local news media reports.
Suh will deliver the welcome presentation at the groundbreaking, set to start at 11 a.m. on the the 9th, Hankook said. Gov. Bill Haslam is scheduled to attend, along with Hankook Tire America Corp. President Byeong Jin Lee and senior vice presidents, Jeong Ho Park and Shawn Denlein, local politicians and dignitaries.
The plant site is about 9 miles northwest of the city of Clarksville, on land adjacent to Interstate 24. The finished plant will span 1.5 million square feet and have a first-phase capacity of 6 million tires a year. A second-phase build-out will boost capacity to 11 million units a year by 2018, Hankook said.
Hankook's choice of Tennessee is supported by $122 million in economic incentives from the state of Tennessee, Montgomery County and Clarksville, according to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
The package of incentives includes the 469 acres of land donated by the city and county and $72 million from the state in incentive funds for training, construction of a training facility and a Korean cultural center in the Clarksville area, according to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.