Officials from Yokohama Tire Company announced today the selection of Athens, Georgia-based Kajima Associates/Architects & Engineers will head up design of the first phase of its Clay County plant location scheduled to begin operation in October 2015.
Construction is set to begin on the 931,000-square-foot factory later this summer and, once complete, will provide the capacity to make one million tires each year, officials said.
The state of Mississippi made its partnership with YTC official in April after legislators approved a $130 million incentive package in a special session that lured the global tire manufacturer to Clay County. The project is expected to provide 500 job opportunities for bus and truck tire manufacturing.
The portion set for completion in 2015 will be the first of four phases. The entire plant is set to be completed in 2023 and is expected to create at least 2,000 jobs by that point.
“The demand for Yokohama’s commercial tire products is outpacing our current production capacity and the faster we move along the plant’s timeline, the faster we can increase our supply to meet our dealer requirements, YTC senior vice president and chief strategy officer said in a press release. “We are confident that Kajima Associates/Architects & Engineers, PC will provide us with design plans for the factory that are aimed at optimum productivity and efficiency.”
For a full article on today’s announcement, see Friday’s edition of The Commercial Dispatch.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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