Letter to the Editor:

In the years 2001 and 2002, the three counties of the Highlands Initiative, Putnam, White and Overton experienced too straight years of losses in their combined sum of employed persons. Most of those jobs were industrial. The unusually high percentage of industrial jobs in this area makes the ongoing process of industrial downsizing even more painful than if we had a diversified economy with many different categories of jobs. In spite of this, the county and the city went together to form a Highlands Initiative so that the mixed-use business park can join its numerous competitors around the state as a 400 acre business park.

The high pay of an industrial job is also an incentive to eliminate that job through increases in productivity gains. In the US, about 2.28 percent of industrial jobs disappear every year because of increases in productivity. If this trend continues, only half of the current industrial jobs will exist in 30.7 years in spite of increasing population and consumption. Furthermore, demands for industrial floor space are thought to be trending downward as well as the because of productivity gains. Many people think that the jobs are moving off shore and that we are not making things anymore. US manufacturing continues to be a fairly consistent fraction of world output that stays around 22 percent.

By granting special privileges and special access to capital, the legislature has suffered and permitted a glut of industrial buildings throughout the state. There are least three free web sites listing industrial properties in 1,249 locations throughout Tennessee. Most of them are existing empty buildings ready to occupy. Land-only sites in various stages of development number 409 on only one web site. The asking price per acre of the 200 land only properties that have some kind of asking price ranges from $3000 per acre to $2 million per acre with an average price of $50,452. One of several plans of our industrial park shows 38 five-acre parcels. With $5.2 million already sunk into this project that would make the undeveloped break-even price per acre equal to $27,368. There are at least 136 industrial sites throughout Tennessee with lower published asking prices per acre and many of them ready to go with infrastructure completed. Many within that group have rail or airport access and at least one is on an existing, completed and operational Interstate interchange for only $7,500 per acre.

One of the oldest Industrial parks in the state is 38 years old and of the original 750 acres, 100 acres still are not yet used up even though it was built before industrial employment in Tennessee peaked in 1979. This site, with rail access, has an asking price of $16,500 per acre. A ten-year old 400 acre Industrial Park in Giles County has managed to snag at least three clients but their Industrial Park has not prevented them from losing industrial employment. According to Bureau of Economic Analysis Records from 1998 to 2005, Full time employment in Giles County fell from 15,744 to 15,285 and manufacturing employment fell from 4492 to 2172, almost twice the state rate. BEA records of personal income inflow show 19.5 % of the personal income in Giles County is from commuters going other places to make a paycheck. I-65 runs the full length of Giles County.

It is time now that we see a serious 30 year business plan for this park so that there is full disclosure of expectations on this project and how much the taxpayer is going to lose. In March, there will be a condemnation action that will only add another 15 acres to our park. It is not too late to stop this madness. The recent announcement that Trousedale County would put their new CCA prison in their "industrial" park is the latest hint that the definition of “industrial” is becoming quite fluid in an attempt to cope with the over supply of industrial parks.

Danny L. Newton
Cookeville, Tennessee