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Skila Harris

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Welcome to The Valley Connection, a newsletter highlighting economic development activities in the seven-state Tennessee Valley region. In this issue, learn how the Tennessee Valley Authority and its economic development partners are providing new and improved tools to assist industrial site selectors; visit a premier industrial site in Chattanooga; and find out how simple design considerations are helping create low-impact industrial sites.

TVAsites.com – the Most Comprehensive Regional Site and Building Database
Visit the world’s largest economic development analysis GIS Web site

TVA and its regional economic development partners have just deployed TVAsites.com, a state-of-the-art Geographic Information System (GIS)-based site and building database. With more than 1,200 listings, the database is your guide to available properties in the TVA power service area.

The Web site includes geographic and demographic data in addition to area business listings. Covering 80,000 square miles, TVAsites.com is the world’s largest economic development analysis GIS Web site.

"Business success is often influenced by making decisions based on complete and accurate information," says TVA Senior Vice President of Economic Development John Bradley. “TVAsites.com puts needed information at the fingertips of decision-makers to help identify optimal company locations in the Tennessee Valley.”

Megasite Certification Program Identifies Best Sites for Large Auto Plants

Site selectors working with large automotive manufacturing and assembly plants need look no further than the Tennessee Valley region. TVA has recently undertaken a megasite certification program to identify the best sites for these facilities, saving time, money, and labor for automotive site selectors.

The megasite certification program focuses on sites with a minimum of 700 acres of contiguous developable land and key infrastructure capabilities. McCallum Sweeney Consulting developed the certification criteria and is now evaluating proposed sites. The assessment is expected to be completed by this summer, and the inventory of certified sites, along with other key information, will be available to decision makers.

Best small towns in America
Valley Cities Rank Among Tops for Business

All seven Valley states were ranked among the top 13 in the nation with the most “top small towns” for business location, according to the March issue of Site Selection magazine. The ranking, published by Conway Data, evaluates the number of towns in each state with new and expanded facilities from 2001 to 2003. The magazine also ranked four Valley cities among the top 20 small towns in the nation: Bowling Green, Kentucky; Morristown, Tennessee; Cullman, Alabama; and Tupelo, Mississippi.

Featured site
Enterprise South Industrial Park

Enterprise South is a 1,200-acre industrial site located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. With easy access to three major highways (I-75, I-24, and I-59), dual rail capacity, and industrial grade infrastructure, Enterprise South offers all the amenities businesses need. Add to that a location that puts a company within two hours of metro Atlanta, Nashville, Knoxville, and Birmingham and a one-day drive from 80 percent of the U.S. population.

Enterprise South also sits at the hub of the Tennessee Valley Technology Corridor. The University of Tennessee SimCenter at Chattanooga is just a few miles away, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Marshall Space Flight Center, Redstone Army Arsenal, and Arnold Engineering Development Center are within 100 miles. Enterprise South is co-owned by Hamilton County and the City of Chattanooga. For more information, visit the Enterprise South Web site.

Industrial Designs Balance Competing Demands

Working with communities in the Valley, TVA provides practical, low-impact industrial site designs that can help promote sustainable economic development. Three pilot projects implementing these designs are the Clay County (NC)/Towns County (GA) Industrial Park, the Golden Triangle Regional Airport Site (MS), and Neuhoff, a brownfield re-development near downtown Nashville, Tennessee. (Links are to PDF files; see project descriptions on page 1 and site illustrations on page 2).

The designs incorporate such features as vegetative channels, dry swales, extended detention wetlands, stream and wetland buffers, and porous pavers for parking areas. The ultimate objective is to keep water quality as close to predevelopment conditions as possible.

TVA is also partnering with the Environmental Protection Agency to develop Web-based guidelines that will assist developers in modeling the effects of low-impact designs. Contact Denny Painter at dspainter@tva.gov for more information.

BREI Chooses Nashville for 2005 Annual Conference

Business Retention and Expansion International (BREI) has chosen Nashville for the site of its 2005 annual conference. The event will be held June 2-4 and will offer communities strategies for working with existing businesses to help them create and retain jobs. As in the past, BREI will also offer a consultant certification course prior to the conference.

TVA Economic Development Scorecard

This chart provides a brief overview of TVA's economic development performance measures so you can track our progress. These measures are one way of demonstrating our commitment to accountability and excellence in business performance.

To learn about the economic development resources available to you and your customers, contact us at 615-232-6225 or get in touch with one of our field specialists.