Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 26, 1994 TAG: 9407300001
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
But while the industrial park is full to the brim, it leaves the town in a quandary of sorts: if industry comes a-knockin' now, where will it stay?
"There is no more publicly owned land that is zoned industrial ... that the town can use in recruiting new industry," said Ron Secrist, the town's manager, in a recent interview. Town leaders say there's no cause for panic, but there's enough concern for Town Council to place the issue of acquiring such land on its top priority list for s around town - municipalities have certain advantages. And economic development experts say they need to use those advantages.
"The key to communities doing their own industrial parks is that [they] qualify for low-interest loan and grants, and private investors don't," said Jerry Fouse, manager of regional services for the southwest region office of the state department of economic development.
Municipalities have the resources to build infrastructure improvements - roads, sewer extensions, aesthetically pleasing lines of trees - and then wait a while to recoup their money.
They also have more leeway in lowering the price of land because they can expect to recoup the investment over the years via taxes, whereas a private landowner probably has no such inclination since all he's getting is the income from the land itself.
"Probably the best tool we have in Virginia is to control the land and to write down the cost of the land," said Secrist, who has also worn the town's economic development coordinator's hat since that position was left vacant four years ago. In the slow-developing world of industrial recruitment, "we're not sitting on a loss like a private investor would be; we're sitting on an investment."
Industries generally prefer to move into industrial parks, where utilities are already provided, and they don't have to go through the hassles of getting land rezoned for their purposes.
"People want to see land and buildings," said Franklyn Moreno, executive director of the New River valley Economic Development Alliance, which showcases the various sites around the valley. Such is the thinking when local governments work to develop parks at the old AT&T site in Pulaski County, Falling Branch in Montgomery County, Elliston-Lafayette or Christiansburg, among others.
Said Fouse: "If you don't have the product, they're not going to come to look at you to begin with."
The Blacksburg industrial park sits at the extreme southern end of town, which bought the land from the Virginia Tech Foundation in 1985 for $525,000 - 70 acres at $7,500 apiece. Federal-Mogul, Wolverine and Cupp Tool Corp. already operated in the area, and since then the town has brought in a variety of businesses.
Last year Tetra Sales U.S.A. opened up shop. Earlier this year, Fiber & Sensor Technologies bought the last industry-usable piece of land in announcing it would move its Christiansburg operations there.
But of the 70 acres the town bought from the Foundation in 1985, only a little more than half was usable for industrial development; the rest is too steep. If the town ever wants to create another industrial park, Secrist said it would need at least 50 acres to do so.
"None has been identified yet," Secrist said.
While the northwest part of town might seem to hold potential if for no other reason than it has the most space, most residents there don't want industrial development. Most of that area is zoned agricultural.
Tech's Foundation owns the last big chunk of industrial land in the university's Corporate Research Center, just across South Main Street from the industrial park. Only a quarter of it is being used, but officials said there are no plans for the town to purchase any of that land.
"We've never had as a goal the acquisition of industrial property just as an exercise," said Mayor Roger Hedgepeth.
Owning land, however, means controlling it.
"When you control the land," Councilman Michael Chandler said, "it provides you with ample control of what will occur on the land."
The town leaders point to Tetra and Fiber & Sensor as examples of clean, environmentally riendly industries Blacksburg would continue to pursue.
The town already has more than 20 manufacturers, and its biggest presence is obviously, the university.
"I don't think we're in a situation where it's life or death," Chandler said. "I think it's just prudent, though," to own some land.
"As a municipal government ... we'd certainly like to have something available for people to look at," Hedgepeth said.
by CNB