Tennessee's First Auto Plant Meant A Better Way of Life in Smyrna

Tennessee landed its first auto plant 25 years ago.

Nissan built its plant just up I-24 from Chattanooga in Smyrna, Tennessee.

So how much difference can one plant make for a city?

WDEF News 12 went to Smyrna to find out.

All the hustle and bustle along Sam Ridley Parkway in Smyrna wasn't here just a few years ago...

Smyrna resident Jerry Morris says, "Ten years ago this street here probably had 2 businesses on in where now, well...you can see, it's everywhere."

Morris and his wife Norma say, without Nissan, it wouldn't be here now, "Anytime that you have a big factory in an area, people are gonna live as close to it as they can."

Twenty-five years ago the first Nissan vehicle rolled off the Smyrna assembly line.

An initial investment of $760,000,000 and a workforce of 1300 has grown.

Nissan's Senior Vice President of U.S. Manufacturing Greg Daniels says, "We've added on to the facility, we've added to the employees."

Two and a half Billion dollars has gone into the facility over the past 25 years.

The company now manufactures eight Nissan vehicles and employs more than 5600 people, not to mention all support positions in takes to make the factory run.

Smyrna and its per capita income has grown right along with it.

Daniels says, "Pay scales go up, benefits go up..."

From a population of 8000 in 1980 to roughly 38,000 today.

Along with that growth comes a better quality of life.

Murfreesboro resident Joyce Dickens does a lot of her shopping in Smyrna.

Before she gets in her Nissan sedan to drive home she says of the company's affect on the community, "There's just so much more industry and restaurants, road are better, everything."

Smyrna Mayor Bob Spivey says it's vitally important that local officials work with industry to meet housing, planning, infrastructure, & growth needs.