Nashville Healthcare Jobs Potentially Created by Signature Healthcare

One company could soon create several Nashville healthcare jobs if it chooses to move its headquarters to the city.

Signature Healthcare LLC, a long-term care provider based in Florida, is considering Nashville as a possible location for the company's new corporate headquarters. The company also is considering moving to Louisville, Ky., or remaining in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

According to an article by The Tennessean, the company will evaluate the incentives offered by each city before making a decision. If Signature Healthcare moves, it would result in 100 employees relocating and the creation of 50 new jobs within the next three years.

Signature Healthcare also will base its decision on the availability and quality of potential job candidates, the company's ability to grow and provide new services, the potential for partnerships with universities and other institutions and operating costs.

While officials in Tennessee have yet to verify any incentives, Signature Healthcare could receive a 6.5 percent credit against sales-and-use taxes if the company makes capital investments of at least $10 million and creates 150 jobs that pay about $40,000 per year.

Officials in the State of Kentucky have already given preliminary approval of up to $4 million in tax benefits for up to 10 years if the company creates 121 news jobs with an average salary of $40 per hour. The state also will offer Signature Healthcare a tax-exempt financing option if the company purchases a building for its headquarters.

Signature Healthcare currently operates 66 nursing homes in seven states, 22 of which are located throughout Tennessee, including Donelson Place Care & Rehabilitation Center in Nashville, Montgomery Care and Rehabilitation Center in Clarksville and Signature HealthCARE in Columbia.

The added jobs would only improve the Nashville area's prosperous healthcare industry, which has managed to see a monthly and yearly increase in employment, despite the current economic recession.

The Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin area's education and health services industry employed 112,200 workers during October, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 112,000 workers during September and a .5 percent increase from last year.