Building a pathway to home ownership

Maury County is a proven hotspot for people moving to Tennessee. Like other counties surrounding the fast-growing city of Nashville, it’s felt the ripple effect of people moving farther out from the bigger city. Over the past five years alone, the population here has grown almost 19 percent, with experts predicting a similar increase between now and 2025. Businesses are also gravitating to the area. Will Evans, President and CEO of the Maury County Chamber and Economic Alliance, says people have discovered what this part of the state has much to offer.

“We have access to everything that Nashville has to offer such as world class entertainment, world class travel out of the airport, and all of that,” he explains. “But we also have a very genuine sense of place with our own unique shopping, dining, entertainment, quality healthcare, and so forth. Then, when you drill down into the various cities, whether it be Spring Hill, Columbia, or Mount Pleasant, you get a different feel, all positive but different. You can go from more suburban to rural depending on what you would like to have in your community.”

Nashville isn’t the only nearby metropolitan area influencing Maury County’s population boom. 

“What differentiates us from some of the other Nashville MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) counties, is we’re also uniquely positioned next to Huntsville, Alabama," says Evans. "So, that provides additional opportunities for our residents, whether it be professional job opportunities or additional entertainment opportunities."

Evans and his team are on the front lines of helping Maury County’s economy grow, attracting new businesses, and supporting existing businesses as they evolve or expand. They have a strong track record over the past decade. 

“2014 is when the tide started to turn for Maury County, and we started to see growth and new companies come to town. If you look back over that ten-year period, our partners at the local and state level have announced forty-three new companies or current companies expanding. That totals over six thousand new jobs and $5 billion dollars in new investment in the county."

As they’ve worked to attract new businesses and industries, it’s been important for them to get strategic input from local business owners, city and county government leaders, investors, and others. 

“When it comes to recruiting businesses in the county, we spent the better part of 2022 and 2023 engaging with our community stakeholders," Evans says. "We wanted to know what they would consider a successful economic development project. What would they be excited for us to announce, as a new company coming to our community."

He says it gave them a lot of insight and helped narrow their focus. They came away with three priorities: higher wages (higher than the average county wage), a diversification of industries and job opportunities, and a responsible use of the community’s resources.”

Attracting new businesses requires a strong workforce. Evans says they realize the need to pool resources to help train and prepare the local workforce for the technical job skills some of these companies will require.

“We’ve been spending a lot of time with what we call Align Maury,” Evans explains. “It’s our workforce program where we’ve brought together the education partners, the technical colleges and community colleges, and employers in the county to figure out what we can do to fill those gaps and really develop some strategies to help the employers find the workforce they need.”

It's an exciting time for Maury County, and Evans says he and his staff are currently working on the plan for the next five years. The goal is to embrace growth but maintain a balance.

"We know we're growing, but how can we grow responsible, and how can we make sure the entire community's input is sought in determining where we want to go as a county in the future. 

That skill set has come in handy in his efforts to help promote and develop Columbia. It’s been rewarding to see the growth so far, while continuing to build for the future.