Although it was necessary to get an extension of a property agreement between Freedom Energy Diesel and Morristown, one of its principals said the company is wrapping up financial arrangements and should begin construction on its $405 million coal gasification plant there in August.

The Morristown City Council last week voted to give the company a one-year extension to start construction. Under the original agreement the 116 acres that Freedom Energy bought for its plant would have reverted back to the city if construction did not begin this month.

"If they did not in good faith begin construction by June 2012, the real estate reverts to the city," said Morristown Mayor Danny Thomas. Without the extension Freedom Energy would have forfeited the $448,000 it paid for the property.

The company, which plans to build a 570,000-square-foot plant in East Tennessee Progress Center industrial park near Interstate 81, bought the land from Morristown in June 2011. Freedom Energy intends to build a plant that would use a proprietary technique called plasma point technology to break down coal to the molecular level and process it into other fuels like diesel, naphtha and activated carbon.

The plant is expected to generate nearly 600 jobs.

The company originally expected to have the plant under construction before now, but so far only grading of the site has taken place. David A. Wild, president of Freedom Energy in Morristown, wrote Morristown's Industrial Development Board in May that the company needed additional time to complete financial transactions. This involves a trip overseas to negotiate with investors, he wrote.

Before it approached Morristown, Freedom Energy had approached the Industrial Development Board of Cumberland, Morgan and Roane counties about building the plant in Cumberland County. At that time, Bernie Rice, Freedom Energy CEO, told the board the $400 million in capital to build the plant had already been raised.

Asked Tuesday why financing was still needed, Christian Kotcher, one of the principals of Freedom Energy's parent company, D4 Capital Holdings LLC, said most of the capital had been raised but there were additional needs requiring financing.

Kotcher said this process is proceeding well and the project is on track to start construction by the end of August and the plant should be operational by late 2014.

"We have invested over $1,500,000 in grading and site preparation which should indicate our commitment to this project and to Morristown-Hamblen County," Wild wrote the Morristown industrial board.

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Freedom Energy gets one-year extension to start construction