Industrial recruiters focus on enhancing existing sites in Floyd County

The Latest Local News from the Rome News

Residents of Floyd County included $8 million in the 2013 special purpose, local option sales tax package to buy land and make infrastructure improvements to existing industrial sites.

Thus far, most of those projects aimed at bringing jobs into the community have focused on improving existing parcels, bringing in water and sewer services, providing access to electricity and natural gas and linking them to roads and rail lines.

Industrial and government leaders understand the community would like to get tenants on sites already owned by the city or county before going out and purchasing more land.

The 100-acre tract at the northwest corner of the Ga. 53 and Ga. 140 has been getting a lot of looks and the county is expected to issue bids for the grading of that site in the very near future. While it is listed as a 100-acre site, the acreage that can actually be developed is probably closer to 80 acres.

Al Hodge, president of the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, said work to prepare three additional tracts that surround the Lowe’s Regional Distribution Center at the northeast corner of that same intersection is also on the priority list.

One of those sites is close to 52 acres while the two others are around 25 acres and 17 acres.

Mark Eubanks, chairman of the Development Authority of Floyd County, said the engineering of a road connecting Prosperity Way to the larger tract involves crossing a major natural gas line and will require extensive engineering.

Eubanks also said work needs to be done to the last large tract in the Floyd County Industrial Park off U.S. 27 south to make it more attractive to potential tenants. “It appears that it’s low but it’s not. It’s very level and there’s very little accumulation of water on that tract so we’re looking at ways to take away that appearance,” Eubanks said.

In 2014, an 80-acre rail-served site in the Berry Corporate Center off Technology Parkway was cleared of much of the timber on that parcel to allow prospects to get a better feel for what the site could look like.

“The search continues for the right site or sites,” Hodge said. “The development authorities (Rome-Floyd Development Authority or Development Authority of Floyd County) will only pay what the property is worth and if there is not a mutually agreed upon price then the development authorities pass on the contract.”

Hodge said that since public funds could be involved, the purchase of any new sites would have to be properly appraised and evaluated right up front. “If the per-acre price is higher than the value, then a company wouldn’t buy it anyway,” Hodge said.

The Chamber chief said the county is looking for a certain minimum acreage as it looks for new land.

He didn’t want to put a number on that acreage, however stateside developers and others have frequently listed 100 acres as a minimum for most of the companies that are looking at sites in Georgia.

“The more valuable short-term tracts would be those that are flat, ready to go with infrastructure,” Hodge said.

The development authorities have indicated a willingness to consider parcels that are not infrastructure ready if the price is right.

“If the price is too high then the cost of getting infrastructure to the site becomes untenable price by the time it’s offered to a prospective buyer,” Hodge said. “The development authorities look carefully at pricing in addition to all of the other issues.”

Source: Rome News

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