Work underway to market industrial park

TimesMail - By Krystal Shetler

MITCHELL — A fire station, foam fabricator and roadways dot the landscape in the nearly 100-acre tract of land that serves as Mitchell’s industrial park.

The goal for the area for the past 20 years is to have it filled with industrial manufacturers that will bring employment opportunities to Lawrence County, but up until this point, only Foamcraft Inc. has taken the lead on making the industrial park its home.

Mitchell Mayor JD England hopes the latest economic development initiative will change that.
 
During Thursday morning’s city of Mitchell Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, board members approved a claim of $3,807.50 to pay for a two-dimensional master plan for the industrial park. Teaming up with Radius-Indiana and the Lawrence County Economic Growth Council, the city is working with Veridus Engineering of Indianapolis to map out the possibilities for the park and get the information delivered to site selectors. Each organization paid one-third of the cost of the report, which should be finalized soon, England said.

The plans map out all of the details of the park including existing sanitary sewer lines, gas line, water mains and utilities, and it shows proposed utility options, including the relocation of a gas line, for example. The diagram also shows how buildings can be built or expanded on the nine lots in the park, which range in size from 2.53 acres to 14.9 acres. The final product will show additional building options.

“It offers us suggestions on what changes can be made to better market the property,” England said following the meeting. “We want to use this to market the park and get someone in it.

“... Ginovus (an independent economic development leader in site selection, location modeling, incentive procurement and incentive compliance management) is helping out with this, which is exciting for us because they can push the property to prospective industrial manufacturing firms.”
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