Community Health CEO Says Antioch Expansion Is Just Business, Not Revenge

Davidson County, not neighboring Williamson, will be the new home for a major office hub to be built by Franklin-based Community Health Systems, in a deal that the company’s chief denies is the result of politics, rather than economics.

CHS announced Thursday that it will build a new $66 million “share services center” in Antioch. The decision came as a surprise because CHS is one of Williamson County’s biggest employers, with about 5,000 workers in Cool Springs.

One state lawmaker says the move is retribution. State Rep. Jeremy Durham, R-Franklin, told The Tennessean that CHS is punishing Williamson County because every member of its delegation in the General Assembly opposed Insure Tennessee, Gov. Bill Haslam’s health care proposal.

CHS, like many Tennessee hospital operators, supported Insure Tennessee. But chief executive Wayne Smith denies any payback:

“Look, we make our decisions based on business and nothing else — not on politics.”

CHS plans to keep its corporate headquarters in Franklin and will open its new Antioch building in 2017. It will sit on a site about a mile south of the former Hickory Hollow Mall, near the junction of Old Franklin Road and Cane Ridge Road.

CHS anticipates placing about 2,000 workers in the building, where they’ll handle back-office functions such as accounting and information technology. Those jobs are now being done at CHS’s 199 hospitals scattered around the country.

Smith listed lower land costs and room to expand as two of the reasons it chose Antioch. 

But the deal comes at a price: Metro Nashville is offering property tax breaks, which Mayor Karl Dean said could total about $8 million. 

The state is also likely to pay for job training and road, water and utility improvements. Officials declined to say how much.

One major issue could be handling traffic. The building will sit on the southwestern side of Interstate 24, but there currently is no direct connection between the highway and local roads.

Still, Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd, the state’s top economic recruiter, said the deal’s size and impact will be comparable to the Nashville Sounds’ new ballpark downtown — though without concession-stand treats.

“Maybe when we do the ribbon cutting we can have some beer and peanuts,” he joked. “I just think it’ll go a long way.”