Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 10, 1995 TAG: 9502100101
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``The equipment's on site. We're waiting for weather,'' said John Stroud, secretary of the Roanoke Valley Development Foundation, which is arranging for $1.4 million in construction funds.
The goal of the project in East Park Commerce Center is to create jobs by providing ready facilities for a company looking to do business in the area.
Project organizers, who revealed plans in August, said Thursday that J.M. Turner & Co. of Roanoke was chosen to construct the 75,000-square-foot building. It will be expandable to 120,000 square feet and will sit on 17 acres. The building is scheduled for completion in July.
A shortage of ready-to-go buildings and land has hampered efforts to attract new firms to the area, said Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership.
``Approximately 90 percent of the prospects we talk to would prefer to look at an existing building, and the Roanoke Valley has precious few,'' she said.
Doughty noted that it took her organization only about six months last year to find a user for the vacant former plant of Grove Worldwide on Cook Drive in Salem. Jacuzzi Whirlpool Bath of Walnut Creek, Calif., expects to begin operations at the site this summer. The plant was shown to representatives of 11 firms in one two-week period, she said.
Communities against which Roanoke competes for new companies have for some time constructed buildings and put them up for lease, Doughty said.
The Botetourt County building isn't the area's first industrial project constructed as an economic-development tool; other so-called shell buildings have been built and leased to companies that finished construction according to their needs.
But the most recent project, with its backing from the foundation and business, economic-development and government leaders, has been hailed as a critical example of cooperation among the region's communities.
Four valley governments offered sites before the industrial park property off U.S. 220 was picked. The nonprofit foundation, funded by citizen contributions, will contribute $600,000 and borrow $800,000 to cover costs.
by CNB