Tennessee Promotes Multimillion-Dollar Memphis, TN Megasite

Find out how Tennessee markets its multimillion-dollar Memphis megasite to manufacturers.

By Emily McMackin on October 16, 2015

Tennessee is putting some promotional weight behind one of the state’s key assets for attracting major manufacturing operations. The 4,100-acre Memphis Megasite is the last remaining site in Tennessee certified by McCallum Sweeney Consulting through the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Megasite Certification Program. The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development is stepping up marketing efforts for the site, located in Haywood and Fayette counties, 20 minutes east of suburban Memphis and 35 minutes west of Jackson. The site has received more than $106 million in infrastructure and other improvements from the state and is expected to be fully ready for development by the end of 2016. The state envisions the site as a magnet for large original equipment manufacturers and has identified 34 potential users it will contact to market the site.

The state-owned megasite offers numerous advantages, including a location:

• Adjacent to a CSX Class I rail line that connects to five Class I rail systems in the region
• Only 45 minutes from the Memphis International Airport and FedEx World Hub, the second-busiest cargo airport in the western hemisphere.
• Offering favorable topography with no flood zones and an average slope of 0.7 percent.
• Positioned within 90 minutes of 2.1 million people, 54,000 advanced manufacturing jobs and 24 post-secondary institutions.
• Providing direct access to I-40 and a nearby Foreign Trade Zone, along with proximity to three other interstates, two major ports and 20 airports.

The sheer size and vast resources of the site offer opportunities for multiple industries to locate there, according to Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner (TECD) Randy Boyd. The site has the potential to fit anywhere from three to seven major OEMs, Boyd notes.

“This is absolutely without question the best asset for industrial development in the state of Tennessee and maybe one of the best assets for industrial developments in the country,” Boyd says.