TENNESSEE SPOTLIGHT
| RUTHERFORD COUNTY: What's in a Name? Ask Folks in Murfreesboro |
| When the U.S. Census Bureau recently renamed the greater Nashville
metro area the "Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro MSA," no one was
happier to hear the news than Mark Herbison. As director of economic development for Rutherford County, Herbison serves a 210,000-resident area that includes the county seat of Murfreesboro. "We have always been selling ourselves as part of Nashville, but this new Census designation will help our county a lot," Herbison said. "We are the second largest county in the Nashville MSA, but we offer some things to companies that Nashville does not." One of the 75 fastest growing counties in America, Rutherford is also home to 22,000-student Middle Tennessee State University and a multi-modal transportation network that ties into airports in Murfreesboro, Smyrna and Nashville. As a result, the county is in the middle of a record two-year run of corporate projects. The largest announced projects in Rutherford last year were Nissan's $250 million, 600-job investment in Smyrna; General Mills' $120 million, 350-job investment in Murfreesboro; and Southern Container Corporation's $38 million, 150-job investment in Murfreesboro. Altogether in 2003, companies added 1.88 million sq. ft. (174,652 sq. m.) of new corporate space, 3,375 new jobs and $475 million in new capital to Rutherford County. The pace this year has shown little sign of slowing. Since January 2004, Rutherford has reaped: — A 400-job expansion at the Murfreesboro Operation Center of State Farm Insurance. — A 300,000-sq.-ft. (27,870-sq.-m.) warehouse project for national retailer Hot Topic in Crescent Resources' distribution park at Waldron Road and Interstate 24 in La Vergne. — A 30,000-sq.-ft. (2,787-sq.-m.) expansion for manufacturer Quality Industries in La Vergne. — A 266,800-sq.-ft. (24,786-sq.-m.) distribution center for Rayovac Corp. in Smyrna. — A two-phase, 87,000-sq.-ft. (8,082-sq.-m.) manufacturing plant for automotive component supplier O-Flex Inc. in Murfreesboro. — A 75-job, 125,000-sq.-ft. (11,612-sq.-m.) distribution center for Starbucks Coffee Co. in La Vergne. |