Governor Bill Lee and Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe joined Mayor Ed Mitchell, Blount Partnership President Bryan Daniels, and others to announce the construction of an Amazon warehouse at the intersection of of US Highway 129 and Pellissippi Parkway, the location of the former Pine Lakes Golf Course.
Mayor Mitchell described the role Amazon will play alongside existing Blount County businesses and industries, saying “We are very excited that Amazon is locating one of its flagship operations here in Blount County. As Mayor, I’m especially grateful for Amazon’s initial $200 million dollar investment into our community. The jobs that Amazon is creating give great opportunities to a significant number of our citizens. We welcome Amazon to join our already existing Blount County companies and industries in helping to move our community forward. Our local businesses are wonderful corporate citizens who support our local economy. They support and are involved in our schools and in our nonprofits throughout this county. We welcome Amazon into our family of strong community servants.”
Amazon will invest no less than $200 million into Blount County for purchase of the property, completion of all the earth work, and construction of their building.
Amazon will hire no less than 800 full time employees at a starting wage of no less than $15 per hour, plus full benefits.
There are no local incentives provided to Amazon from Blount County, Alcoa, or the Industrial Development Board.
The IDB has borrowed $12 million to make improvements to Cusick Road, Singleton Station Road, public water/sewer extensions, and completion of Blount County’s remaining section of the Blount/Alcoa/Maryville Greenway system linking it to the Knoxville Greenway. These public road improvements are an effort to ensure that Blount County citizens are not adversely affected by the logistic operations of Amazon.
The IDB will take possession of all of Amazon’s assets and charge a lease back to Amazon for use of their assets that is equal to the property taxes they are to pay. This will ensure that no property taxes paid by any Blount County citizens are used to the benefit of Amazon.
The IDB will use Amazon’s lease payments to pay back the full $12 million borrowed from Alcoa and Blount County.
Anticipated Project Timeline
Cusick Road improvements will begin April 1, 2021 and finish May 31, 2022.
Singleton Station Road improvements will begin no later than October of 2021 and be completed no later than October 2022.
Work on completing the Blount/Alcoa/Maryville Greenway will begin in Spring 2021 and be completed no later than December 2023.
Water and sewer line extension work around Cusick Road will begin in Spring 2021 and be completed by October 2021.
Amazon will complete their facility construction by May 2022 and will be fully operational by Fall 2022 in preparation for the 2022 holiday season.
Mayor Mitchell ended his comments during yesterday’s presentation with some of the following remarks, “I would also like to acknowledge the organizations that have made this possible. This would not have happened without the support and the commitment by the Blount County Commission. They have been behind this, supportive of this, from the very beginning, as they are with anything that we have going on in Blount County that’s going to benefit our citizens. I’m very fortunate to work with a great group of commissioners that are committed to this community. To the City of Alcoa, Mark Johnson, his staff, to the city of Maryville, Greg McClain and his staff. Always, I enjoy my time having these conferences with Governor Lee and his office, who do an absolutely outstanding job. To Commissioner Rolfe, it’s always great to work with him. I’ve worked with him over the last few years and he does a great job. It’s always great to have him as a part of this team. To our state legislators: Art Swann, Jerome Moon, and Bob Ramsey. To TDOT and TDEC, I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the hard work that they’ve done on this project and continue to do every day. They’re out there working now. To our Congressman, Tim Burchett, who absolutely commits everything he has back into the people that elected him and that he serves. And to the Blount Partnership and Bryan Daniels. I guess if this is the team, Bryan’s the quarterback. He’s the one that makes this team work, and he does amazing things for this community. And not just for this community, but this region and the whole state of Tennessee. I think our Blount Partnership is just absolutely amazing. As I said, this is a team effort. Everyone that’s involved in this, I look at it as a team. Even though we’re not playing Sunday, with this announcement that Amazon is here, I think we won the Super Bowl today. I think the Lombardi trophy is here in Blount County today. They may get it Sunday night, but today, we’re gonna hold it.”