ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996             TAG: 9610100067
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-8  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER

INDUSTRY AT HEART OF PARK TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN BUSINESSES TO BENEFIT

A business park exclusively for electronics companies, communications providers and other technology-driven businesses may be built near Clifton Forge.

The concept, made public Wednesday, could lead to development of 200 acres of what is now national forest and spawn hundreds of new jobs and millions of dollars of investment, according to its proponents.

The Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Authority announced a $50,000 grant for a feasibility study of what it would call the Alleghany Highlands Innovation Park. The site being considered is northwest of Interstate 64 and Virginia 42.

The study will be paid for by the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal economic development agency focused on Appalachian mountain communities.

The park's development cost is estimated at $4 million, not including buildings.

For the project to succeed, the authority would need to gain control of land that the U.S. Forest Service would accept in trade for the project's proposed site. The needed land could be donated or purchased by the authority specifically for the proposed swap. An effort is under way to identify potential tracts, said Glynn Loope, the authority's executive director.

Business and government leaders have been striving to diversify the area's economy to replace jobs lost to railroad industry cutbacks.

The proposed new industrial park would come on the heels of development and opening of the Alleghany Regional Commerce Center, an industrial park that Bacova Guild Ltd. of Bath County built and where it operates a manufacturing plant for its lines of home furnishings.

The authority's board of directors would like to limit access to the proposed park to "growth industries," such as those based on advanced technology or research and development, according to an authority statement.

Those officials also have a plan for making the proposed industrial park a lure for Western Virginians after they graduate from college. Tenants may be required to ensure that 20 percent of employees have a two-year college degree.

The proposal has the support of local governments, Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, the New Century Council, West Virginia's Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corp. and several federal and state officials.

LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines
ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC:  Map by staff. color.