Sysco Food Services’ new $37 million, 353,000-square-foot distribution center opening next month in Knoxville is a significant achievement for the city and is expected to stimulate other business investments along the I-275 corridor. The facility will provide service to approximately 2,600 customers in Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky.

“The project took a piece of real estate that had been dormant, and with the help of the city and county, turned it into this fine facility,” said Sysco President and CEO Tommy Dail. The distribution center sits on 44 acres of an empty field which was the former site of Norfolk Southern Railway’s mammoth Coster Shop.

Houston, Texas-based Sysco Corporation is the largest food service marketer and distributor in North America with annual sales exceeding $35 billion in 2007; it employs more than 51,000 employees. The company’s earnings were $1 billion in 2007. The company operates 170 facilities in the U.S. and Canada. Sysco Food Services of Knoxville LLC is a division of Sysco Corporation.

At last week’s celebration of the completion of the distribution center, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam said, “Every now and then, things work out just like you hoped they would!”