TYLER (KYTX) - Since 2008 when Goodyear shuttered its plant on Texas 31 West in 2008, Tyler economic leaders have tried unsuccessfully to lure a tenant to the 155-acre plant and business park.
Scott Corp. has plans to begin manufacturing and distributing home gardening products such as mulch and fertilizers under its Hyponex division on about 63 acres of the former Goodyear plant property and warehouse, according to Tyler Economic Development Council President Tom Mullins.
Mullins and a Scott Corp. representative will appear before Smith County Commissioners at 9:30 Tuesday morning at the courthouse to consider creating a reinvestment zone for the property. Creation of the zone is necessary for the county and taxing districts for Tyler Junior College and the Smith County Emergency Services District to offer tax abatements to Hyponex.
If approved, Hyponex would bring 30-40 manufacturing jobs paying anywhere between $11 and $19 an hour to the facility. Mullins said at least 90 percent of the plant's workforce will be East Texans.
"Some of the management and maybe some of the technical positions, they may have to bring in from another area," Mullins said. "Most of these positions will be material handling and distribution positions."
Goodyear opened the plant in 1962 and operated for 36 years before closing its doors. Since that time, at least three tenant prospects for the facility have fell through, Mullins said.
"It's always a negative for a community to have a big, empty facility like that," he said. "So, now we've got a big national group coming in there with a well-known name using a big share of the building."
Tyler EDC will continue searching for tenants to use the remaining 90-plus acres of property and warehouse at the plant, which is bordered on all sides by four-lane highways, Mullins added. It is also one-half mile from the planned Toll 49 and "a crow's flight" of about one-half mile from Tyler Pounds Regional Airport. Those infrastructure ingredients have Mullins and other economic leaders eyeing the former plant as another industrial park for the Tyler area, he said.
