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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995                   TAG: 9501260004
SECTION: ECONOMY                    PAGE: NRV-26   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

INDUSTRIAL PARKS A MAJOR SELLING POINT

In the meeting room in the New River Valley Economic Development Alliance's office in Christiansburg, a multipanel brochure enclosed in glass hangs on a wall.

The brochure is 6 years old, but what is represented in it reveals a major stone in the foundation of offerings that economic developers depend upon to land their business prospects.

The brochure talks about education, transportation, labor supply and quality of life issues in the valley. But its thrust - in pictures and a map - is the valley's industrial parks.

In economic development lingo, a "green field" site is just that, a green field where a building housing industry and workers could go. But to be utilized, that site might need to be rezoned for industrial uses; have utilities run to it; be accessible by a road network.

With an industrial park, "you get all that stuff done up front," said Franklyn Moreno, the Alliance's director.

The valley possesses a dozen publicly-owned industrial parks, including an undeveloped site in Montgomery County at Falling Branch, and three essentially full parks in Blacksburg, Giles County and Montgomery County. Moreno's office is at work updating its brochure to reflect additional sites acquired over the past six years.

Companies' biggest dilemma, Moreno said - and one that they don't want to deal with unless absolutely necessary - is the rezoning issue. "They're into making a product and a profit," he said. They're not into encountering citizen resistance in a rezoning hearing that will be in all the newspapers the next day.

An industrial park is, obviously, already zoned for industrial uses.

Moreover, these days, when companies' boards have already allocated funds to build a plant, know just what they need in terms of space, utilities and road access, and may even want a building ready for them before they even come calling, "you've got to be able to say 'yes sir,'" and be ready to accommodate them, said Don Moore, director of economic development for Montgomery County.

There's a trend toward industry needing more land per employee, said Peter Huber, assistant administrator for Pulaski County, which has three publicly owned industrial parks not including one in Dublin. That means there's a need for parks with larger tracts of space, he said.

Moore said he's been pleased to see what he perceives as an evolution in the valley's leadership over the past few years. After the valley lost prospects like Blue Cross and Blue Shield in 1991 and Siecor two years later, leaders began realizing that more needed to be done to land these potentially high-employing companies. That included having more sites available and ready for industry.

"We now have leaders ... who really are doing what you have to be doing to be successful in economic development," he said. "You have to invest significantly over a long time before you see sizeable payoff."

Said Huber: "Industrial parks don't develop overnight."

by CNB