Tennessee Town to Play Home to New $120M Whirlpool Manufacturing Facility

September 3, 2010
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Cleveland, Tennessee has emerged victorious in the bid for a new $120 million, 1 million-square-foot Whirlpool Corporation manufacturing center. The international home appliances manufacturer and marketer, which presently has a century-old facility in Cleveland, looked around before deciding to rebuild in the city instead of constructing in a new locale.

“Whirlpool Corporation, as a matter of practice, looks at various scenarios when making decisions about changes in production,” Jill Saletta, director of external communications for Whirlpool, told CPE. “In this case, in addition to the option of staying in Cleveland, we looked at other U.S. locations and Mexico. Based on a variety of factors, Cleveland offered us the best cost, best quality solution for our premium cooking products.”

The company will erect the new manufacturing center–as well as a 400,000-square-foot distribution center–at the corner of Benton Pike and Michigan Ave., just under seven miles from the 100-year old manufacturing facility at 740 King Edward Avenue that it will replace. The development endeavor marks the company’s largest single investment ever made. And, in addition to keeping the 1,500 Cleveland jobs in the U.S., Whirlpool will create approximately 130 new ones upon the project’s completion.

Whirlpool has been quite busy of late in terms of real estate activities. In July, the company announced an $85 million development and renovation endeavor at its Benton Harbor headquarters campus that will allow for the consolidation of 15 owned and leased facilities. Other recent moves include the announcement of plans to build a new 1 million-square-foot, $40 million distribution center in Wilmer, Texas.