Etowah WorksFriends of Progress
Etowah Works · Reindustrialization for a stronger Etowah

That empty foundry on Waupaca Drive? It can go back to work.

When the foundry idled in 2022, about 540 people lost their jobs in a town of 3,600. The building is still standing, with its own substation and three rail spurs, ready for its next use.

  • Industry back to work
  • Paychecks back in town
  • A stronger Etowah

Now The former foundry is for sale

A historic brick railroad depot and steam locomotive, rendered as iridescent glass.
Follow the flow
N1Put it back to work
The former foundry today: tall weathered steel bays, a brick office wing, rail spurs, a substation and a cracked, littered lot.
The same building back at work: a glass front on the tall bays, cars in a repaved lot, workers and new landscaping.
TodayBack at work
Illustration of the real building.

N1 · Reindustrialization

What does reindustrialization mean here?

It means putting an idle industrial building back to work. The outside stays the same. New equipment and new jobs go inside.

The former Waupaca foundry was built in 2001. Putting it back to work means new equipment and new jobs inside a structure that is already standing. Listing

It's already built.

About 387,000 square feet under roof, with ceilings from 36 to 70 feet and about 30,600 square feet of offices.

Listing

The power and rail are already there.

An on-site electrical substation and three rail spurs, about 5,245 feet of track.

Listing
N2What the building has
A cutaway of a refitted industrial building, showing open bays, a power room, utility loop and loading entry.

N2 · Ready to use

A plant that can open faster than one built from scratch.

Building new means years of grading, permits and utility work. This site already has the structure, the power and the rail.

  • Its own substation
  • Three rail spurs
  • Ceilings up to 70 feet
  • 350+ parking spaces
N3What it does for you
A miniature town of clinic, school, bank, fire station, library and shops, all connected to one central plant.

N3 · Branch

One working plant supports a whole town.

Wages earned at the plant get spent all over Etowah.

N4Working beats empty

N4 · The cost of empty

Empty industrial sites drain neighborhoods.

They invite blight, discourage nearby investment, and sit on the tax rolls as underperformers. Left alone long enough, many become hazards.

Left dark

  • Trespass, squatting, and dumping
  • Arson and vandalism
  • Failing roofs, broken glass, structural decay
  • Repeat calls for police and fire crews
  • A drag on nearby property confidence

Rescued

  • Secured, lit, and staffed around the clock
  • Rebuilt to current building and fire codes
  • Back on the tax rolls at a higher value
  • Steady payroll and local supplier work
  • A working building neighbors can point to

Reindustrialization brings these buildings back and fills them with jobs and opportunity. A rescued building can become a garden of thought, ideas, innovation and prosperity.

N5The plant by the numbers
Glass figurines of an electrician, engineer, security officer and facilities technicians.

N5 · What's at stake

What this building has meant to Etowah.

Jobs cut when it idled in 2022Times Free Press
~540

In a town of about 3,600 people. Production moved to the company's other foundries.

387K

square feet under roof, built in 2001

Listing
3

rail spurs, about 5,245 feet of track

Listing
117

promised jobs at a planned lithium plant that was canceled in 2024

TNECD
Jobs and tax revenue from the next useDepends on the buyer

No new use has been announced. Whoever comes next, ask for job and tax estimates in writing.

N6Where the money goes
Glowing coins flowing from the reused plant through pipes to a school, a library, a road crew, and a water tower.

N6 · Community returns

What tax revenue pays for

This is the community half of Etowah Works. Depending on how the city and county divide it, revenue from the site can pay for school roofs, road crews, library hours and the utility system.

  • Which funds receive property tax from this site?
  • How are sales and use taxes shared?
  • What is pledged to schools or infrastructure, in writing?
N7Guardrails

N7 · Concerns

Good projects answer hard questions in writing.

Whatever comes next to Waupaca Drive, these are the questions to ask, and what the site already offers.

Power

Can the grid carry it?

The site already has its own substation. Ask any new user to show the utility can serve it without raising household rates.

Listing
Water

How much water will it use?

Ask any new user for its water use and cooling method, in writing, before approval.

Keep asking
Noise

What will neighbors hear?

Ask for a noise limit at the nearest homes and monitoring the city can check.

Keep asking
Traffic

How many trucks, on which roads?

Three rail spurs could carry freight instead of trucks. Ask for a traffic plan with routes and hours.

Keep asking
Emergency

Is the fire department ready?

Generators and batteries need a fire department review, site access plans, and a 24-hour contact.

Keep asking
Visual

What will it look like from the street?

Ask for renderings from neighbors' viewpoints, landscaping, and an outdoor lighting plan.

Keep asking
N8Every city chooses
A road that forks: one side leads to a lit town around a working plant, the other to a dark, fenced, empty factory.

N8 · Decision fork

Yes with conditions, or an empty shell.

Yes, with conditions

  • Reuse a vacant industrial site
  • Clear rules, enforceable commitments
  • Jobs, tax base, and land use stay local

Leave it empty

  • The shell stays dark
  • Demand moves to the next town that says yes
  • The jobs and tax base go somewhere else
Where Etowah stands
  1. Apr 2022The foundry idles; about 540 jobs cut. TFP
  2. Sep 2022A $582M lithium plant with 117 jobs is announced for Etowah. TNECD
  3. Aug 2024That plant is canceled and moved to North Carolina. Yahoo
  4. 2026The foundry building is for sale. Listing
N9Your move
A glass city hall with a crowd of residents on its steps.

N9 · Speak up

Read up, then come to the meeting.

Etowah Works

Read the sources and what local leaders have said. Then tell city and county leaders you want this building working again, under clear rules.

Community voices Questions to ask Share
✓Community voices
Etowah, on the record

Local voices

What local leaders have said about losing the foundry and bringing investment back. None of them are speaking about a specific buyer.

Opportunity cost

Keep the upside local

What Etowah could lose by waiting.

Cities that delay or block modern infrastructure under clear industrial zoning do not stop the demand for these projects. It often relocates to a neighboring jurisdiction that pairs scrutiny with a workable approval path.

When that happens, the first city can lose three things at once:

  1. 01
    Tax base growthfrom construction-period sales and use activity and a higher assessed industrial property.
  2. 02
    Jobsin the trades during buildout and in operations afterward, plus supplier work that stays near the site.
  3. 03
    A second life for an empty industrial shellthat otherwise keeps draining civic energy and nearby property confidence.

That doesn't mean approving everything. Vacant industrial land is scarce, so ask for noise limits, traffic plans, clear numbers on water and power, and commitments the city can enforce. Then decide whether Etowah wants the payroll and revenue on its own books or on the next city's.

Places that approve projects under clear rules get the construction work, the long-term jobs, and a dark building turned back into a working one.

Careful review with a clear path to approval keeps the benefits in Etowah.

Sources

Neighbor FAQ

Straight answers

The questions neighbors ask most, with what is on the record so far.

The whole town

One plant. One town. Working again.

The depot, the downtown shops, the churches, the schools and the neighborhoods all rise together when the plant on Waupaca Drive goes back to work. That's the whole idea behind Etowah Works.

A glass relief model of Etowah at night under three stars like the ones on the Tennessee flag: the town and its historic depot sit in a valley along the rail line, with wooded foothills and mountain ridges all around.

Artistic rendering, not a map.