
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991                   TAG: 9104110561
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Short

BEDFORD PARK ALMOST FULL/ LAST INDUSTRIAL SITE MAY BE SOLD SOON

A company may purchase the last empty spot in Bedford's industrial park as early as this week, city officials said Wednesday.

After an executive session Tuesday night, City Council passed an emergency ordinance allowing Mayor Mike Shelton to immediately sign a contract for the land if the industry agrees to its terms, Shelton said Wednesday.

Shelton would not reveal the name of the company, but said that it eventually could provide 25 new jobs on the 5.1 acres available on Industrial Avenue in Bedford.

Normally, when selling a piece of land the council posts the proposed ordinance for a few weeks before adopting it.

"In this case, things need to move very rapidly," Shelton said, explaining Tuesday's emergency ordinance. "We could get the land sale taken care of within this week. That's possible."

The site is the last open parcel in the city's more-than-20-year-old park.

In December 1987, a North Carolina casket manufacturer announced that it would develop that same site by July 1988. Mastercraft Casket Inc., of Graham, N.C., planned to build a 30,000-square-foot building for 25 workers.

Financing for that project fell through though, Shelton said.

Since then, he said, the location has been marketed. Shelton credited Region 2000, an economic-development organization for central Virginia, with locating the industry currently considering the site.

by CNB