By Karen Hall

Editor

"Here's a roomful of people and we're not giving away any Christmas presents," exclaimed Chairman Eddie Wiles as he looked around the packed room at the Historic 1st Avenue Building at the start of the Industrial Development Board's meeting Monday.

But there was a Christmas present for Lewisburg and Marshall County: Calsonic Kansei North America will be buying up to $50M worth of new equipment for its Lewisburg factory, leading to at least 262 more jobs, at a conservative estimate. There could be as many as 474 jobs created.

IDB members voted unanimously to approve a Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreement for CKNA in order to help the company pay for the new equipment, and the city council is also expected to approve the Pilot when it meets next week.

"This is just for equipment for new product lines in the original facility," said attorney Chris Bowles. "It's pretty impressive we're getting an investment of $50M in this community. It just shows how gangbusters things are going over there at Calsonic."

"Calsonic is a good friend of Lewisburg and always has been," said Wiles. "We are most appreciative of everything going in out there. This is really good news for us. Good job, Greg!"

"They're just awesome," said Lewisburg's Director of Economic Development Greg Lowe. "It's a big deal they're putting this much faith in this community."

"It will be four new product lines," added IDB Attorney Steve Broadway.

"It's just good news all the way around," said Lowe.

Later in the meeting he reported that unemployment in Marshall County remains stubbornly at just over 10 percent, though this should change as industries finish building and start hiring. Lowe reported the walls are going up at the Imperial Foods facility in the I-65 Commerce Park, and Meiwa has occupied its office space in the former "spec" building.

Urging IDB members to visit Meiwa, he said, "It's amazing what that building looks like now."

With the Tennessee Department of Transportation working on the road at the Commerce Park, Lowe said they were on track for Meiwa's grand opening on April 10.

As well as supporting existing industries, Lowe is always trying to attract new companies to Lewisburg. He is constantly supplying information on existing buildings -- like the former ICP, E-Z Scaffolding, and Lewisburg Seating factories -- to interested parties.

"The ICP building gets the most hits online," Lowe said. "The ABC Building is 53,000 square feet and I've shown it a lot recently. I'm working with a prospect right now that picked it off the Internet.

"This I-65 corridor in Middle Tennessee is a hot area right now," he said. "Prospects don't want to look at raw land, though; they want at least some of the preliminary work done."

Lowe said he and Mike Wiles, executive director of the Joint Economic and Community Development Board would be starting a new focus on retail recruitment and some of the projects in Lewisburg's Vision Plan will also help make the community more attractive.