LG to invest $250 million, bring 600 jobs to Clarksville
CLARKSVILLE — Tennessee’s expanding business partnership with South Korea was further cemented Tuesday with the formal announcement that LG Electronics is taking over a 310acre site near Clarksville in Montgomery County and plans to open a $250 million manufacturing facility.
The deal is expected to bring 600 jobs in its first phase.
“Tennessee has been known for generations as a place that makes things,” Gov. Bill Haslam said Tuesday afternoon in announcing the deal at the state Capitol, joining LG executives who said the state can now add advanced appliance and washer technologies to its list of goods produced here.
LG is a vast South Korea-based company that will manufacture appliances in Clarksville — principally washing machines — in an 830,000-square-foot phase one facility.
The company has four divisions — Home Entertainment, Mobile Communications, Home Appliance & Air Solution, and Vehicle Components — and is headquartered in Yeouido-doug, Seoul, South Korea.
Since June, Clarksville had been competing with another undisclosed finalist city for the LG project, said Mike Evans, executive director of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Industrial Development Board, and Cal Wray, executive director of the community’s Economic Development Council.
The site near Clarksville is part of the 1,167 acres that make up Corporate Business Park North. The tract is south of Tylertown Road and east of Jim Johnson Road.
State officials put Montgomery County in the mix for the LG plant because of the available property, formerly occupied by Hemlock Semiconductor, whose production never materialized even after the facility was fully built out and ready to start.
State and local incentives are involved, but not yet specified in detail.
Hankook Tire, another South Korean company that is preparing to launch manufacturing in April at its $800 million plant in Clarksville, apparently played a role in the decision by LG. Evans and Wray said they were aware of positive conversations between Hankook and LG about the Clarksville business climate.
The Clarksville-Montgomery County Industrial Development Board was recently told that LG, identified by code names “Project Blue Sky” and “Project Baseball,” would construct a series of industrial buildings on a large tract in the northern portion of the Corporate Business Park.
Making best of land left behind
The land it has acquired evolved in part from the Hemlock deal that went sour for Clarksville-Montgomery County around 2013.
After that case, officials in the Clarksville area had sought to take the property Hemlock abandoned and quickly make it marketable again.
The results so far: a $600 million Google data center in planning and development, the $800 million Hankook Tire plant and now the $250 million LG plant.
“I am so proud that LG took the ‘Last Train to Clarksville,’ and we hope it will be a successful partnership for many years to come,” Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan said, referencing the famed Monkees song. “Clarksville is the kind of welcoming place where people like to come to do business.”
Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett was unable to attend Tuesday, but issued a statement praising the deal.
“Once again a leading global company has chosen our community. We want to welcome LG and we look forward to working with their team as they bring their manufacturing process to Montgomery County,” Durrett said. “Companies like LG choose Montgomery County for a reason. They see the strong workforce we have and the relationships with Fort Campbell, (Austin Peay State University) and all of our industry leaders, but I honestly believe it comes down to our people.”