Tennessee Valley Authority among the best utilities in job recruitment

CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE - The Tennessee Valley Authority ranked No. 1 among U.S. utilities last year in recruiting jobs and is doing even better this year, the agency's top business recruiter said recently.

John Bradley, TVA's senior vice president for economic development, said the number of jobs from new and expanding business projects aided by TVA grew by 14 percent in fiscal 2005 over the previous year.

"The outlook for 2006 continues strong and we think we have a good chance of doing even better next year," Mr. Bradley said.

TVA topped the job creation honor roll recently released by Business Facilities magazine for 2004 by working on projects projected to collectively produce 50,000 jobs, or 5.1 jobs per thousand residents it serves. The next closest utility, Hoosier Energy, helped with projects that generated 2.7 jobs per thousand residents. Georgia Power just south of TVA averaged one new job per thousand residents in 2004.

In the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2005, TVA did even better, helping with projects that created 57,000 jobs, or 5.8 jobs per thousand residents.

In business investments, TVA ranked No. 3 among utility economic development departments for its size, according to Business Facilities' ranking. TVA estimates it generated $2.1 billion of investment in 2004, or $233 per resident in the Valley.

TVA could fare better next year when Business Facilities releases its next ranking of utilities. In fiscal 2005, business investments related in some way with TVA's work totaled $3.6 billion, or $399 per resident.

"Part of what has given (TVA) such great results is the relative success in general of the region that the southeastern states have had in attracting new investment, compared to the rest of the country," the editors of Business Facilities said. "But it's also due to TVA's high level of organization when it comes to its economic development approach."

Mr. Bradley, a 23-year veteran of economic development who previously headed recruitment for the Memphis Chamber of Commerce, was hired by TVA three years ago to help upgrade business recruitment by the federal utility. TVA has since focused most of its community development programs on attracting and growing business in the Valley.

The utility established TVAsites.com to provide detailed information about developable land in the TVA service territory, which includes most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia. TVA hired more recruitment specialists to market the Valley and created both a loan fund and the Valley Advantage to make strategic investments in some projects.

TVA hired a leading automotive consulting company, McCallum Sweeney Consulting in Greenville, S.C., to identify and certify the best industrial sites in the region for a potential automotive assembly plant. In May, the Enterprise South Industrial Park in Chattanooga was certified as one of the top sites in the region for a new automotive plant.

"We're seeing some interest in Enterprise South right now," Mr. Bradley said.

Trevor Hamilton, vice president of economic development for the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, said the "megasite" certification by TVA's consultant "opened doors" to business prospects in the past year, although no major deals have yet been reached for the 1,600-acre park.

"The megasite certification has put us on the radar screen of some companies who otherwise would not have considered us," he said. "Since I came to Chattanooga three years ago, there has definitely been a renewed effort on the part of TVA in economic development."

TVA helped provide local loans in the past couple of years for a "smart oven" manufacturer, TMIO, and a $16 million call center by T- Mobile, which will employ more than 700 people.

Locally, TVA estimates it helped with $62 million of business projects and 2,764 jobs during fiscal 2005.