According to local reports, site preparation and grading are now underway for the Hankook Tire America Corp. plant in Clarksville, Tenn. 
Mike Evans, executive director of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Industrial Development Board, told The Leaf Chronicle that Hankook has also set up a temporary office in Clarksville. The company is close to making a decision on hiring the first 13 of 200 office staff for the facility.
A Mississippi firm, Eutaw, is handling the site preparation work to make way for construction of the 1.5 million-square-foot, $800 million Hankook plant.
The project will involve preparing the large, open-field site and taking it to “pad-ready” status. That process is expected to consume most of this summer.
Evans has also said that, contractually, the site is to be ready by Aug. 31 to begin the first stages of construction on the Hankook facility. The two-phased construction process is scheduled to begin this year and will result in a facility designed to produce high-end performance tires at an annual production rate of about 11 million.
The Leaf Chronicle has also reported that it has been told that Clarksville has a “better-than-average chance” that it will eventually become the North American headquarters for Hankook.
