On this episode of the Pocket Change Podcast, we talk about the recent announcement Ford Motor Company made on its investment in Blue Oval City, which will make an economic impact on the greater West Tennessee region.
Co-hosts Shea and Mary Helen, talk with the President and CEO of the Greater Jackson Chamber, Kyle Spurgeon about the excitement and concerns of Ford coming to West Tennessee.
"We've used the word transformational probably too many times, but that's exactly what it is," said Spurgeon.
"It puts up in a different playing field. We have always been successful economic development wise, but not we're competing with projects that have an even higher Capex, maybe a lower employment count, but wages are higher because they're demanding more skills. So, it's almost like you took us from AA or AAA baseball and moved us to the Major Leagues. That project, we won the World Series, Super Bowl, the Masters, the Stanley Cup. That project represents all those, that's how big it is."
Tune in to hear President and CEO of the Greater Jackson Chamber, Kyle Spurgeon, and financial champion co-hosts Shea and Mary Helen discuss the impact of Blue Oval City. You can listen on your favorite streaming platform or at https://www.leaderscu.com/podcast.
Shea:
Hey, I'm Shea.
Mary Helen:
This is Mary Helen.
Shea:
Welcome to the Pocket Change podcast.
Mary Helen:
Well, you'll learn better ways to spend, save, and invest and take control of your financial journey.
Shea:
We've got a great episode today about something that's really going to impact our region.
Mary Helen:
I know. I'm really excited to talk about it and have good dialog and good conversation.
Shea:
I think it's something like... it's called like the The Green Circle Town or something like that?
Mary Helen:
You know, Shea, I don't think so. I don't you know, I'd just...
Shea:
Some color, isn't it? Oh, blue oval, Blue Oval City! Not Green Circle Town. Okay. Yes, Blue Oval City. That's what we're talking about today. I mean, the oval is probably bigger. It's probably a bigger impact than we know, but we'll find out today.
Mary Helen:
That's right. Well, we are so excited to welcome president and CEO of the Greater Jackson Chamber, Kyle Spurgeon. Thanks for being on the podcast today.
Kyle Spurgeon:
Excited to be here! I think episode number three?
Mary Helen:
That’s right!
Kyle Spurgeon:
Thank you for having me. That's an honor. I'll always be number three.
Shea:
You're in the top ten.
Kyle Spurgeon:
Yeah, Forever.
Mary Helen:
We're excited to talk about Blue Oval City today. And for listeners that may not know what it is, could you tell us a little bit about what that is and what that means for our community?
Kyle Spurgeon:
Well I want to go back to what Shea said. What do you call it? Green Circle Town?
Shea:
Green Circle Town.
Kyle Spurgeon:
Well, in a way, you're not wrong because it's going to create a whole lot of green throughout a whole lot of towns throughout West Tennessee.
Shea:
Lots of people are going to get some pocket change from this.
Kyle Spurgeon:
Yes, they are. The pockets are...If you play your cards right, your pocket should be full. Blue Oval City is a Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation's...their joint partnership to build electric vehicles and batteries. So SK will be building the batteries, Ford will be building the vehicles. They'll roll off the assembly line. They will be electric.
Kyle Spurgeon:
They'll be sold around the world. It will be the most advanced automotive manufacturing facility in the world when it opens in early 2025.
Mary Helen:
That's a big deal.
Kyle Spurgeon:
It is a big deal. It's actually and we've used the word transformational probably too many times, but that's exactly what it is. So this project, in terms of economic development projects, moved extremely fast. The state of Tennessee, the Economic Development Department and TVA's Economic Development Department became aware of the project in February of 2021. Locally, we started getting involved in April, May of 2021.
Kyle Spurgeon:
I had my first interaction with their site selection team and it was their folks involved in quality of life and workforce development. I was actually on vacation in California, did a virtual call selling Jackson to them in June of 21’. So think about this: $5.6 billion project started in February of 21’. They announced it in September. There are projects that take 18 months, two, three, four years, but yet this is the largest capital investment, manufacturing-wise, in Tennessee's history.
Kyle Spurgeon:
And it went that fast. Which is really unbelievable. But it's one of those situations also, we look back. You tell people to never quit. I know this is a financial podcast. You hope people are setting goals financially. Don't ever give up because we worked on the Mega-site for over 15 years and it seemed it's that overnight success that took 15 years to be successful.
Shea:
That's a great tidbit for our listeners. That's a good bit of pocket change to not quit and never give up. We appreciate that little added bonus on this episode today. So what are some of the misconceptions about the project, maybe rumors that have been started, people have come up with things, so what are some of those?
Kyle Spurgeon:
I think a lot of us, and myself included, up until recently thought that the vehicle that would be produced would be the F-150 Lightning, because when you look at Ford and everything is they're pushing out there. They've got the Ford Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning already being produced. And so as this project, as we were working it and it was announced, that's what everyone assumed, that this would become the new production facility for the F-150 Lightning.
Kyle Spurgeon:
That is not the case.
Shea:
So it's a new Mustang?
Kyle Spurgeon:
We don't know what it will be.
Shea:
I’m starting another misconception.
Kyle Spurgeon:
I hate to do this on your podcast, but you're wrong. You are not right. We do know it will be a new electric vehicle that is a truck.
Shea:
Okay.
Kyle Spurgeon:
The design of that has not even been released to the folks that are building the building at Blue Oval City. So you've got these teams of folks that are working to set up all the workforce development initiatives, the training, the facility being constructed. But the design of the vehicle has not even been released to them yet.
Kyle Spurgeon:
And so it will be an advanced vehicle. One of the things I know: that inside that plant, folks will wear Google lens glasses. They'll have wearables on their arm. So that's how modern factories are being developed now. So again, I'll repeat it. This will be the most advanced automotive facility in the world when it opens.
Shea:
They might put out a flying car out of there. I mean, from what it sounds like, transformation, I mean, who knows? All from Tennessee coming out of Tennessee. That's great.
Mary Helen:
So can you estimate the economic impact that this is going to have on our region?
Kyle Spurgeon:
Yeah, and that's a good question, but it's also a tough one because it's in billions of dollars. It is creating generational wealth for folks because when you talk about - just initially, almost 6000 employees, and that amount of income is coming into West Tennessee, the spillover and the turnover of that money, how it supports more small businesses, how it supports lifestyle changes for people.
Kyle Spurgeon:
A lot of the folks that are going to be coming to this project, initially to West Tennessee, are working in other parts of the world now. So they'll be moving here. But the majority of the folks that'll be working at the facility making the vehicles already live in West Tennessee, you're going to see that they're going to have an opportunity to improve their standard of living.
Kyle Spurgeon:
And when you do that, that means more disposable income, more of the financial institutions like Leaders in West Tennessee will have the opportunity to see their deposits increase. There will be more homes bought, more cars bought, more vehicles. It just changes everything dynamically for us and financially. Your question about can I give you a specific number? I can't, but I can tell you it starts with a B.
Kyle Spurgeon:
It's in the billions.
Shea:
And people will need, you know like you said, their banking services, home loans, savings accounts. I mean, all those things that, you know, you think, like you said, building generational wealth. That can happen at Leaders Credit Union. You know, we can help these new folks coming to West Tennessee with their financial story and transforming that, like you said.
Shea:
So that's a huge impact. Not only to Leaders or a credit union, but to the small businesses, like you said, those folks who are providing a cup of coffee in the morning or, you know, building your fence at your new home in West Tennessee. So it's definitely a huge impact.
Kyle Spurgeon:
Yeah, I'll give you an example about - because I know we talked beforehand about that - I bought a new house, needed to put a fence in our backyard for our dog. And I told the guy who owns the fence company, I said, be prepared to scale up because you're going to have the opportunity to put many, many more fences around yards in West Tennessee because there’ll be hundreds, if not thousands, of new homes built.
Kyle Spurgeon:
And whatever the percentage of homes that require fences or have fences built, that's his market opportunity. So not only individuals, but small businesses are going to have transformational opportunities to grow their businesses.
Shea:
That's great. That's a huge impact. And so what makes you so excited about this project?
Kyle Spurgeon:
It's a once in a generation opportunity for our entire region. And, you know, when a sports team is successful in a town, you know how it energizes the town. This project has energized West Tennessee, and you're going to see us grow in ways you never imagined. You're going to see companies look at Jackson and West Tennessee that you never thought would locate here.
Kyle Spurgeon:
You're going to see people moving from Europe, Asia, Mexico. The opportunities- again, it's transformational what we're going to see, but it puts us in a different playing field. We've always been successful economic development-wise, but now we're competing with projects that have an even higher CapEx, maybe a lower employment count, but the wages are higher because they're demanding more skills.
Kyle Spurgeon:
So it's almost like you took us from double or triple A baseball and you moved us into the Major leagues. That project we won the World Series, the Super Bowl, the Masters, the Stanley Cup. That project represents all of those. I mean, that's how big it is.
Shea:
We're just the champions in West Tennessee.
Kyle Spurgeon:
We are. That's a good way to look at it.
Shea:
And at Leaders Credit Union, we're your financial champions. So look, we just tied it all together right there.
Mary Helen:
I'm from Brownsville, Tennessee, born and raised West Tennessee my whole life. And so it's cool to see a project this big coming. But for the people that maybe from a small town that might have concerns or anyone that has concerns, what would you say to them?
Kyle Spurgeon:
First of all, I think the thing we all have to do is validate those concerns that people have because some of them don't have enough information or they're in a situation- let's just take there might be a farmer that owns 500 acres. All of a sudden a county or a city or chamber [says] Hey, we'd love to option that.
Kyle Spurgeon:
Your farmland for a new industrial site. The farmer may have no interest in doing that. He's farmed all his life. His kids are going to be farmers. We have to recognize that some folks don't want to change their lifestyle and that is okay. Other folks have concerns that don't have enough information, we have to make sure that they understand what's happening so that they can have an opportunity to participate in what will be the biggest economic change
Kyle Spurgeon:
West Tennessee has ever seen. And if they're not included in those conversations, particularly small business owners, they may miss out.
Mary Helen:
So where do you see Jackson in the next ten years?
Kyle Spurgeon:
That is a great question.
Mary Helen:
And probably a hard question too.
Kyle Spurgeon:
It is a hard question. Yeah, absolutely. And if I told you I can dream, but specifics, I don't know. I can tell you that you take a town like a Murfreesboro, we're on a path to attract a lot of things that are in a Murfreesboro. We just took a group of folks to Greenville, South Carolina, back in October to learn from the best.
Kyle Spurgeon:
Because when you ask site selection consultants and real estate brokers around the country, what community has responded the best to having an OEM, which is an original equipment manufacturer, locate in their community. BMW located there 30 years ago, community-wise, community development-wise, they have killed it in Greenville. So we went there to learn. Jackson will look a heck of a lot different.
Kyle Spurgeon:
You're going to have- one of the ways I phrase it is: it has become a place that is better to risk capital in. So you're going to see more small restaurants open. You're going to see more boutiques open in Jackson. Yeah, you're going to see more national retailers, too. But I think you're going to find us capture more of that unique atmosphere that makes Jackson a place, a great place to live, work, and do business.
Kyle Spurgeon:
By people risking that capital because of all this money that's going to be created because of Blue Oval City.
Shea:
And not only Jackson, you know, the best place to live, work, but West Tennessee. And not only live and work, but do your banking as well like at Leaders Credit Union. So it's going to be a great place for everybody to work, to live, to recreation, recreational activities. So...
Kyle Spurgeon:
So Shea, do you have a- is there like a quote- Do you have to meet a goal every podcast? “Leaders Credit Union 10 times...”
Shea:
I mean it is the Leaders Credit Union Pocket Change podcast so we want to support our members and give them valuable information about saving spending, investing and about things that are happening in our community. So we hope that we can do that through this. And we thank you for being with us today.
Kyle Spurgeon:
Well, you just you know, to conclude, it sounds like we're nearing the end of this, but-
Shea:
I've got one more question.
Kyle Spurgeon:
All right. You guys have locations all across West Tennessee. There's no part of West Tennessee that will not be impacted by this. If you look purely on the manufacturing side, suppliers will locate throughout West Tennessee. Now where are the folks that work at the plant, that's going to be within a 50 mile radius. That also means that those communities outside that 50 mile radius are going to grow because they're going to attract those suppliers and they're going to people to move in to work at those plants.
Kyle Spurgeon:
So wherever you guys are, which you're all over West Tennessee, your customers and your members are going to be impacted.
Shea:
I mean, it's the hub city. That's where it's all happening. Here in West Tennessee and in Jackson. So we're excited. So the last question, very fun question that we ask at the end of every podcast is if you had some extra change in your pocket, what would you spend it on?
Kyle Spurgeon:
Wow, that is a great you didn't prep me for this.
Shea:
That's the surprise.
Kyle Spurgeon:
I would probably invest it- heck, I don't know. Let me stop on that one. That's great Shea. If I had some extra change?
Shea:
Yeah.
Kyle Spurgeon:
Wow, I think there's two ways to answer that. One, you might invest it in some stocks that support EV manufacturing because you can see what's happening here. Otherwise I might spend it on some Jeni's Ice Cream or some good bourbon.
Shea:
Well, thanks for being here, Kyle. We appreciate you sharing this information with us and for our listeners as how Blue Oval City, not the Green Circle Town, will impact West Tennessee. So we appreciate it.
Kyle Spurgeon:
Well, thank you for having me here. It's been fun.
Mary Helen:
Thanks for tuning in to the Pocket Change podcast. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe and share with a friend.
Shea:
Pocket Change podcast has been brought to you by Leaders Credit Union.
Mary Helen:
Where we power your passion and make lives better.
Shea:
Leaders is federally insured by the NCUA Equal Housing Lender.
Mary Helen:
Learn more at leaderscu.com.