Update 7:45 a.m. Friday: Hemlock has scheduled for Monday a pair of press conferences in Michigan and at Austin Peay University "to discuss the future of its operations."
As originally reported:
A unit of Dow Corning is close to signing an agreement with state officials to build a massive plant in Clarksville, sources have told NashvillePost.com.
Many details have yet to emerge, but the planned Hemlock Semiconductor facility would employ hundreds of people at the Tennessee Valley Authority ‘supersite’ northeast of Clarksville proper. The plant will make polycrystalline silicon, an ultra-pure rock-like material used in solar panels and semiconductor chips. (For more info on Hemlock, click here.)
If consummated, Hemlock’s expansion here would be the second major economic development coup in six months for Gov. Phil Bredesen, who has of late had to accept Democratic legislative losses and battled with new House Minority Leader Gary Odom. It also would mean another nice notch in the belt of the state’s ECD team led by Matt Kisber, which led the way in landing a Volkswagen assembly plant this summer.
Sources said Hemlock’s investment would be in line with Volkswagen’s plans in Chattanooga. A spokesman for the company said he did not know of plans for an announcement and had no update on the timeline for any news.
NashvillePost.com first reported on the possibility of Hemlock’s investment in July, shortly after the Volkswagen news. At the time, officials in Michigan — where Hemlock and its majority shareholder, Dow Corning, are based — were putting on a full-court press to snag the company’s new plant. Among other things, they were offering tax breaks of $35 million per year.
It’s not known how much Tennessee has offered Hemlock in terms of incentives. Mark Drury at the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development declined to comment on the issue, but part of the state’s package will include a tax abatement incentive passed recently by the Clarksville-Montgomery County Industrial Development Board.
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