FRANKLIN, Tenn. - Nissan Motor Co. and Tennessee officials formally launched construction Thursday of the Japanese carmaker's North American headquarters in suburban Nashville.
Construction of the $100 million, 450,000 square-foot facility is expected to take two years, but the company plans to begin operating from temporary offices in downtown Nashville on Monday. The relocation is expected to be completed by the end of next month.
Nissan President and Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn has cited lower real estate and business taxes as major reasons for the company's move from California to Tennessee.
Ghosn said the decision was also influenced by more than two decades of the company's manufacturing experience with a plant in Smyrna, about 30 miles away.
Gov. Phil Bredesen called the move "a tremendous endorsement of our state and the people and workers who live here." Tennessee offered nearly $200 million in incentives to Nissan to relocate its North American headquarters.
About six in 10 of the nearly 1,300 Gardena, Calif.-based employees have declined to move to the Nashville area, but more than 80 percent of senior managers have agreed to relocate, spokeswoman Katherine Zachary said.
California employees were given an extra month to decide whether to move, and the company organized trips to the state for families to see the area and look at homes and schools.
Nissan has collected more than 40,000 resumes to fill about 750 open positions, filling about 60 percent of them by Thursday.
The Nissan plant in Smyrna is the company's largest U.S. manufacturing facility and produces 550,000 vehicles a year, including the Frontier pickup, the Pathfinder sport utility vehicle and the Maxima sports sedan.
The plant is also producing Nissan's redesigned 2007 Altima sedan.
Nissan was one of the first of several major carmakers — including DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes division, BMW AG, General Motors Corp.'s Saturn unit, Toyota Motor Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co. — to build plants in the Southeast.
The region remains one of the cheapest areas to do business in the country because of low taxes, wages and real estate costs.
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On the Net:
Nissan North America: http://www.nissanusa.com
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060615/ap_on_bi_ge/nissan_relocation
Construction of the $100 million, 450,000 square-foot facility is expected to take two years, but the company plans to begin operating from temporary offices in downtown Nashville on Monday. The relocation is expected to be completed by the end of next month.
Nissan President and Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn has cited lower real estate and business taxes as major reasons for the company's move from California to Tennessee.
Ghosn said the decision was also influenced by more than two decades of the company's manufacturing experience with a plant in Smyrna, about 30 miles away.
Gov. Phil Bredesen called the move "a tremendous endorsement of our state and the people and workers who live here." Tennessee offered nearly $200 million in incentives to Nissan to relocate its North American headquarters.
About six in 10 of the nearly 1,300 Gardena, Calif.-based employees have declined to move to the Nashville area, but more than 80 percent of senior managers have agreed to relocate, spokeswoman Katherine Zachary said.
California employees were given an extra month to decide whether to move, and the company organized trips to the state for families to see the area and look at homes and schools.
Nissan has collected more than 40,000 resumes to fill about 750 open positions, filling about 60 percent of them by Thursday.
The Nissan plant in Smyrna is the company's largest U.S. manufacturing facility and produces 550,000 vehicles a year, including the Frontier pickup, the Pathfinder sport utility vehicle and the Maxima sports sedan.
The plant is also producing Nissan's redesigned 2007 Altima sedan.
Nissan was one of the first of several major carmakers — including DaimlerChrysler AG's Mercedes division, BMW AG, General Motors Corp.'s Saturn unit, Toyota Motor Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co. — to build plants in the Southeast.
The region remains one of the cheapest areas to do business in the country because of low taxes, wages and real estate costs.
___
On the Net:
Nissan North America: http://www.nissanusa.com
___
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060615/ap_on_bi_ge/nissan_relocation
