Domtar’s new containerboard plant set to go online in 2023

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Friday for the conversion of Domtar’s Kingsport mill, which will produce containerboard once operational.

During the ceremony, the mill presented the City of Kingsport with a $500,000 check.

The half-a-million donation is to support the relocation of the Scott Adams Memorial Skate Park that has been used by the greater Kingsport community for years.

The move is part of a land swap agreement with the city, which includes exchanging the 40-acre Cement Hill property for Cloud Park. It is something the Kingsport mill manager, Troy Wilson, said was to prevent truck traffic going into the mill from being disrupted.

“We understand that there’s a sensitivity from the traffic standpoint and the trucking standpoint, so when we started laying the mill out, one of the objectives was to make sure that we didn’t impact the downtown area with the truck traffic and the in and out of the final products, so we developed a route into the mill and that route took us to this partial of land that we have today,” Wilson said.

By being located in downtown Kingsport, Wilson hopes the mill will be able to breathe life into the city for years to come.