MARYVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A gun-making company older than the Civil War will soon start calling Blount County home.

Smith & Wesson plans to start moving into its new headquarters later this year but things are moving on as scheduled.

Jeff Muir with Blount Partnership said, “There’s walls up around it. They’ve installed some equipment. Their offices are being constructed right now. There’s definitely a lot of activity on the property.”

Pipes are being fitted and Muir says some manufacturing equipment is also being installed.

“It took a lot for them to move to this area,” Muir said. “But this is such a second amendment friendly state, second amendment friendly community, they felt right at home, and it was a long process of courting them. It goes all the way back to about 2015.”

An aerial view of the progress at the new Smith & Wesson headquarters. Courtesy: Smith & Wesson Inc.

Smith & Wesson has been based in Springfield, Massachusetts since 1852. Its new headquarters sits on a 240-acre lot just off Profitt Springs Road in Maryville. In addition to relocating the headquarters, Smith & Wesson will move its distribution, assembly and plastic injection molding operations to the new property.

Muir said, “They’ve hired a lot of local people to fill some of their corporate suite jobs from accountants to lawyers and some other things like that to fill. Working later to work on hiring manufacturing employees.”

The company’s $125 million investment is expected to bring in about 750 jobs.

“After Ruby Tuesday closed and they moved out their things, we lost a lot of employees that worked with that,” Muir said. “Bringing in Smith & Wesson’s headquarters is bringing in some of those employees back.”

While construction of the new HQ continues, a plan is in the works to connect the facility to the Blount County greenway.

“With Smith & Wesson, Amazon, and even Denso, they want to be connected to the greenway. And so, we’re working on making sure that when Smith & Wesson opens, they have a connection to the greenway. It’s not only for the employees but also to give people around the area the chance to walk by and see that facility,” said Muir.

To learn more about obtaining a job with Smith & Wesson, click here.