As previously reported here at Global Trade, Volkswagen has plans to expand upon its manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee with the intention of producing a new midsize sport utility vehicle.

A new report, released by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville suggests that an estimated 9,800 full-time permanent jobs will be added to the Tennessee economy as a result of the manufacturing plant expansion. 1,800 of these new jobs will be at the production plant, while 200 will be engineering jobs at the new North American Engineering Planning Center. Currently, Volkswagen employs 2,400 Tennessee workers.

“Some of these new jobs will be with Volkswagen suppliers, while others will be associated with the multiplier effect and will be jobs in many industries such as grocery stores, restaurants, shopping malls and construction,” says Bill Fox, UT’s Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) director and the study’s author.

According to the study from CBER, an estimated $704 million investment in the new Volkswagen plant will attribute an additional $373 million income once the plant is fully operational. The expansion will also increase state and local tax revenue by $35.1 million annually.

Construction for the expansion project is underway and is expected to be completed in summer 2016. Production of the Volkswagen midsize SUV is scheduled to begin later that year, while new employees will be added over a five- to eight-year period.