BFNAT Tech Centre Location to be Decided Soon

The final location of Bridgestone’s new Tech Centre – which will cost around US$100 million – is to be confirmed in “the next several weeks”, a company spokesman has told a real estate news website. The Japan-headquartered manufacturer is to decide between moving the facility, along with its 600 jobs, to office space in Tennessee near Nashville that possesses the 600,000 sq ft required, or to remain in Akron, Ohio, which would require the building of a new facility.

The state of Ohio has provided an incentive package worth $68 million to remain in the area, where the company currently inhabits a century-old office block – dating back to the company’s beginnings in Akron – unfit for the purposes of the new Centre. Staying in the area would mean building anew. The company wishes to begin work at the proposed research building in 2010.