Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 30, 1995 TAG: 9508300063
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``It's probably similar to when your cancer doctor calls saying he wants to come to visit you and he's going to bring your minister with him,'' Brock said Tuesday as his company began construction of its new manufacturing facility at Valley Techpark.
The call from the Virginia Department of Transportation was, in fact, ominous. The proposed Peters Creek Road Extension project was going to plow through part of Rusco's property.
The 48-year-old door and window manufacturer had to leave Blue Ridge Industrial Park, where it has been since 1972.
Brock said he contacted all of the Roanoke Valley's jurisdictions in search of a new site; he even called Greensboro and Charlotte in North Carolina.
But it was Roanoke County that made the company an offer it could not refuse.
``It got down to two things: a dollar-and-cents thing and convenience. And as it turned out, we came out OK on both,'' Brock said.
It's a deal that gives Rusco more than $220,000 in county incentives to move less than 20 miles.
The incentive package includes free land - 13.3 acres - free connection to water and sewer systems and up to $120,000 for site improvements, which amounts to grading the land. The county had pledged $70,000 for site improvement, but when a $50,000 grant from the Virginia Governor's Opportunity Fund was denied, the county agreed to pay that cost.
County Administrator Elmer Hodge said it's a fair agreement for both taxpayers and Rusco.
``The benefit to the taxpayer is we keep those jobs here,'' Hodge said. ``It's identical to what we would've provided for a company coming from Pennsylvania. Why should an existing [local] business be treated differently?''
That deal was one Roanoke could not match.
The city had proposed 6.5 acres in the Roanoke Centre for Industry and Technology, a city-owned industrial park. The site, which has been graded flat, equipped with utilities and is served by a road, has an asking price of about $195,000.
No incentives were offered to Rusco by the city, said Phil Sparks, Roanoke's acting chief of economic development.
But the price was negotiable. It could have been lowered according to how large an investment a potential buyer planned to make in a building and equipment and how many jobs the company would create, Sparks said.
Although the city lost the company to the county, Sparks said the important thing is that the company dropped talk of leaving the state when the county made a better offer.
``The valley saved a business, more so than the city lost one,'' he said.
The city, however, can collect taxes from the Rusco property indefinitely because another company can buy or lease the building that Rusco is leaving. The Peters Creek Extension project will pave over only some of the land around the building.
Rusco is leaving because it needed that land.
The state agreed to pay Rusco $1.5 million for its Blue Ridge Industrial Park property. The company will in turn invest $1.5 million in a 60,000-square-foot building in Valley Techpark. Brock said he expects his company to be in its new home by February.
The move to Valley Techpark does not represent an expansion for Rusco. Its building and work force will remain essentially the same size, Brock said. He did say the company plans to expand eventually, though.
Rusco's 80 employees, who range from entry-level factory workers to administrators, earn an average of $6.60 an hour, said Brian Duncan, assistant director of the county's department of economic development.
Duncan said Rusco's move as Valley Techpark's first occupant will help him market the property to other businesses.
``No one wants to be a maverick,'' Duncan said.
Although the county began developing the industrial park only last year, it has owned the 179 acres in Glenvar since 1990.
The county purchased the tract for $800,000 to woo Allied Signal Inc., when the Morristown, N.J., company proposed building an automobile disc brake factory. Allied Signal backed out of the deal, though, when recession cut the demand for auto parts.
This left the county with that site plus another 17 acres the company had purchased.
The county's total investment in the park is about $1.5 million. The state has contributed $450,000 toward road and other improvements. Last year the federal government approved $150,000 for the park.
Staff writer Jeff Sturgeon contributed information to this story.
by CNB