BusinessTN

Change is inevitable. Times change, politicians change, industries come and go, and natural resources are depleted or discovered—and with that inevitable evolution, the economic climate of a county changes, too. Embracing change—and developing and implementing new plans for future success—is hard work, especially in a region where the past continues to play an integral role in the present.

Located in the heart of Middle Tennessee and home to the communities of Columbia, Mt. Pleasant and Spring Hill, Maury County is in the midst of some major transitioning. Maury County's leaders are well aware of the effects of time and change on their economy, and good planning is at the forefront of everyone's minds. "How do you plan where and what type of growth you want? It sounds simple but it isn't easy," Frank Tamberrino says.

Tamberrino, president of the Maury Alliance, the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Center for the county, has witnessed a lot of changes in Maury County throughout his tenure. "Our community has been around for over 200 years. So we have the old ways of thinking and new people with new ideas mixing it up," he says. "It's not so much that folks are butting heads, but that the dichotomy is more evident when you're trying to generate a consensus on where, as a community, we are heading."

Maury County has evolved through a couple of major transitions in its long history. In its early years, from the first settlers who arrived in 1806, Maury was a farming and mercantile community due to its strategic position along an early major trade route—the Natchez Trace—a path originally beaten down by Native Americans and followed by French traders and colonial pioneers. In the late 1890s, Judge S.O. Weatherly discovered a site containing high-grade brown phosphate rock near Mt. Pleasant—a mineral discovery that proved pivotal to the county and the state of Tennessee. Mining and industry moved into the area. By 1900, there were 15 companies in operation and the population of Mt. Pleasant had increased 300% in just a few short years. Maury County made its first major transition from an agrarian community to a manufacturing community with the mining and extraction of phosphate, along with numerous "cut and sew" operations.

Fast forward almost 100 years, and the phosphate, while still available, was no longer profitable to mine and extract. With Florida and some western states able to process the phosphate far more competitively, the phosphate industry in Maury County, for all intents and purposes, disappeared. Textile manufacturers and low-end assembly plants went away, too, as the products of traditional manufacturing concerns followed low-cost labor. "Maury County experienced a double blow," Tamberrino says. "Even our traditional manufacturing concerns disappeared as we experienced the shift of traditional Southern manufacturing to offshore or overseas. The unemployment rate jumped into the 20s."

About that time, General Motors was conducting a search for a plant location to build its new Saturn concept. Waymon L. Hickman has been credited as the man who helped bring the Saturn plant to Maury County, an event that not only revitalized the area's economy but made national news. Hickman, at the time a banker and the chairman of the economic development arm of the Chamber of Commerce, was serving—at the request of then-governor Lamar Alexander—as a liaison between the State of Tennessee and General Motors. His responsibilities as liaison included hammering out the arrangements that would pave the way for General Motors to settle in Tennessee.

With the opening of the Spring Hill Saturn plant, Maury County was transformed into a more modern manufacturing economy, bringing in the auto industry, suppliers, support services, fabricators, office products and services. "General Motors chose Maury County for many reasons," Hickman says, "including location, work ethic, state government and other factors." GM's arrival came at the right time and shifted the county from its dependence on a declining manufacturing and mining sectors to a dependence on the auto industry and higher-end manufacturing.

General Motors is now changing the landscape of Maury County again—literally. The company is selling 500+ acres of its property located across the street from the plant. Assuming that it will be zoned for mixed use, the property is being marketed by Jones Lang LaSalle, a national commercial real estate firm. There has been interest from all over North America focused on Spring Hill and that acreage, according to Tamberrino. Approximately 100 acres will be donated to Rippavilla Inc.; several acres on the north side have been slated for public use for a school or conference center; 50 acres have been designated for commercial use. On the south side, acreage is available for office or civic use; multi-family housing; and single family residential housing.

General Motors is changing the economics of Maury County again, too, with its recent cessation of automotive production. In March 2007, the plant produced its last Saturn Vue and Saturn Ion, and issued layoffs to close to 2,400 employees. "Our unemployment rate jumped from 5.4% to 9.4% over six months, but it's just temporary," Tamberrino says.

The company is retooling the entire plant—a $225 million overhaul—with the machinery, new paint booth system and ventilation necessary to manufacture a new crossover vehicle. In addition, General Motors will be spending another $400 million to $600 million from a construction standpoint. As the company brings in new equipment and contractors, GM employees will go back on the payroll as they assist in placement of equipment. And, Tamberrino says, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the employees of the suppliers. "When GM gears up for the new product, scheduled for fall of 2008, they'll need the suppliers back, with their approximately 900 employees. This will take us right back to where we were six months ago."

The short-term effect of the plant closing gave the Maury County powers-that-be pause—and some impetus to fast-forward their vision-making. "But, for the long-term, no one is panicking, because we see this as temporary," Tamberrino says. And the years of effort that have gone into making sure the plant and the state have stayed competitive have paid off, as the Spring Hill plant has stayed off the closing list over the years.

In 2006, Maury County had an extremely good year attracting jobs and industry with the announcement of the addition of more than 1,000 jobs, and close to a million square feet of real estate that was built or absorbed. Maury County was one of only two counties in 2006 that announced more than 1,000 jobs added. (Davidson was the other.) New companies that moved into the area include Auto2Auto.com (Internet auto sales); Al's Garden Art, a manufacturing plant for high-end concrete products out of California; W.R. Grace Performance Chemicals, a manufacturer of non-porous membranes for the construction industry; Printing Technology, a recycler and remanufacturer of ink cartridges; and Sekisui Plastics, a Japanese company that produces a hybrid, moldable resin for the automotive, appliance and electronic industries.

People from all over the country—and especially those from Florida, it seems—are looking for a small-town lifestyle, that is close to a metropolitan area such as Nashville. Maury County's proximity to Nashville in Davidson County, and to Franklin in Williamson County, is quite an asset. Companies looking for a good workforce, ease of transportation (I-65 cuts through the county, and I-840 lies just to the north), and promising economic opportunities see Maury County as a great mix of old and new, big and small, busy and relaxed.

Two companies from Florida, Integrity Nutraceuticals International and Kitty Hawk Furniture, moved into the county this past month. The owners of Integrity Nutraceuticals, a Florida-based, global raw material supplier of bulk nutraceutical ingredients for products supporting healthy lifestyles, started looking at Maury County due to escalating insurance costs in Florida and a need to attract affordable talent.