Chattanooga Gets a $1-Billion Windfall from Volkswagon Tennessee scored its largest economic development coup in more than a decade when Volkswagon Group of America announced in July that it will build its new U.S. automotive production facility in Chattanooga. The Chattanooga plant marks a return to U.S. production for VW, which closed its last North American plant in Pennsylvania in 1988. The Germa ...

When a project gets put on the shelf, key players shouldn't put themselves on hold. They should be ready to leverage the situation to their advantage. ...

P.S. Reilly is the president and CEO of the Athena Institute, a Washington-based consulting firm for organizations seeking clean and sustainable solutions. BF: What initial factors should a community consider before embarking on a waterfront revitalization? PR: Waterfront was an overlooked asset for decades-no more. But community waterfront revitalization can imply a significant commitment of time and resou ...

From the Desk of the Editor in Chief ...

When we last left the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Depression-era aqency that backs up our bank accounts was trying to keep a lid on a ''secret'' list it had compiled of 90 U.S. banks teetering on the edge of failure. FDIC's big brothers over at the Securities and Exchange Commission warned everybody not to spread any unsubstantiated ''false'' rumors about this list, lest it spawn another wave of fi ...

Does the cube farm in your office have the population density of Shanghai? Do you eat your lunch next to the copy machine because the nearest restaurant is five miles away? When you plug your work address into MapQuest, do you get a response that says ''page not found?'' Well, have we got a deal for you! According to this week's edition of Crain's New York Business, there currently is a whopping 54 blocks o ...

Small business owners in the United States are overwhelmingly disillusioned and dissatisfied with the federal government, according to a recent press release from American Management Systems, a 21-year-old organization that provides turnaround services and profitability guidance to more than 6,000 small- to medium-sized business across 400 industries. The clear-cut results of the survey, conducted this year ...

A few months ago, we reported in this space that there is a silver lining in the generally depressing story of the plummeting U.S. dollar: the corresponding rise of the euro is dramatically increasing the cost of manufacturing cars in Europe, leading overseas car makers to take a close look at shifting production to the United States. German auto giant Volkswagen has now put an exclamation point on this tre ...

When cheerleaders from Ohio and Pennsylvania start shouting at each other, it's usually because Penn State's Nittany Lions and The Ohio State Buckeyes are battling it out for the number one ranking in college football. Well, the cheering has come early this year, and we are pleased to report that the ranking generating all the hoopla is Business Facilities' annual tallying of Overall Biotechnology Strength ...

For the past 80 years, Nutley, NJ has been a company town. For as long as anyone can remember, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Hoffman-La Roche has loomed over the local landscape and served up thousands of jobs along with thousands of little blue and yellow pills. The creator of valium and librium probably saw a spike in sales for the popular sedatives in Northern New Jersey late last month, when it sprung ...