eCorridor Regional Park Southwest Dedication

By KEVIN CASTLE
KINGSPORT TIMES NEWS
Published August 23, 2005

http://www.timesnews.net/article.dna?_StoryID=3538234

DUFFIELD - The landscape for future job growth for Scott County and surrounding localities currently stands on a dusty, leveled ridgetop overlooking the Duffield Industrial Park.

Economic development officials christened the 60-acre tract Monday that will be known as the eCorridor Regional Park-Southwest, an excavated property funded with tobacco settlement money that towers above other industries in the park, which currently has just 18 developable acres left.

"Simply put, we have run out of real estate down there. That's why we are up here to celebrate this new development,'' said John Kilgore Jr., executive director of the Scott County Economic Development Authority.

All of the tenants that will move into the park will be technology-based, a move that government leaders have pointed to as the stimulus of future job growth for the county and a fact that was proven with a feasibility study conducted by the EDA two years ago.

The study, funded by a grant from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, was conducted to determine where the most suitable pieces of land were available for development.

The conclusion pointed to the ridge above Duffield, approximately 60 acres owned by the SCEDA that features a view of Kane's Gap but offered developers tons of dirt to move and mountaintop to make level.

County leaders got a firsthand look at the work that has taken almost 18 months to complete.

"We now have four sites that can accommodate two 75,000-square-foot buildings and two 37,000-square-foot buildings,'' said Kilgore.

"We can now go out and actively market this site, which we feel is going to be a really exclusive site that can host everything from Internet-based business to call centers - just anything that needs advanced technology.''

The conduit to getting the park ready for future tenants is blown fiber-optic cable that has been installed by a sister agency of the Lenowisco Planning District Commission called Lenowisco Inc.

This broadband currently extends from Duffield into Big Stone Gap and is soon to be installed in the city of Norton.

The high-speed capacity of these lines is a recruiting tool that Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, says the region has needed for a while.

"I think it is no longer a case of us having to compete with Northern Virginia for technology jobs. What we will offer in this park is going to exceed what other parts of the state have. We are a front-runner in this instance,'' Kilgore said.

The delegate and fellow Tobacco Commission members Sens. William Wampler Jr. and Phillip Puckett announced Monday that the SCEDA had been awarded a $50,000 grant from the agency to fund a site development plan for the park.

That pushes the amount of money invested by the Tobacco Commission into this park up near the $2 million mark.

"It has taken a tremendous vision and passion to make this park come into play. Now, we can say that we are officially open for business,'' said John Kilgore.