DATE: Sunday, September 21, 1997            TAG: 9709190364

SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN             PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  103 lines

PROMISED LAND``SUFFOLK, WHERE THE CROSSROADS OF SUCCESS AND PROGRESS MEET,'' IS THE SLOGAN.

AS BOARD MEMBERS of Suffolk's Industrial Development Authority tooled across the James River Bridge recently, they must have been humming a tune.

``Land - lots of land.''

That's what locals involved in selling this city as a future industrial hub of Hampton Roads know that Suffolk has far more of than most other cities.

The board, with Economic Development Director Thomas A. O'Grady, toured industrial parks in surrounding cities last month simply to get an idea of how those cities are marketing their industrial lands.

``One thing we really liked about Hampton and Newport News was the presentation of the parks,'' said IDA board chairman Douglas McConnell. ``They were all very appealing to the eye.''

So, with a little landscaping and some new signs, Suffolk IDA board members decided they can have eye appeal to offer and much more, McConnell said.

The race is on in this growing metropolitan area to attract manufacturing, industrial and commercial enterprise.

For Suffolk, a developing area with an agricultural history, it's important to do well in that race.

``Suffolk, Where the Crossroads of Success and Progress Meet,'' is the new slogan for the city's department of economic development.

The IDA, with its ability to issue bonds for important development projects, is a vital part of fulfilling the meaning of that slogan.

And the board has been busy lately with an aggressive attitude toward the city's commitment.

At its most recent meeting, the IDA board voted unanimously to place new signs at the entrances to Wilroy Industrial Park and at the entrance to the city's newest industrial park, the recently-dedicated, 150-acre Suffolk Industrial Park on Carolina Road.

Wilroy has been Suffolk's shining star on the industrial horizon, attracting large companies like QVC, Golden States Foods and Nestle. With its rail and interstate highway access, Wilroy is just about full, O'Grady said recently.

Only one, small, 19-acre plot adjacent to QVC, the cable shopping network's distribution center, remains. There are also two or three smaller sites left in Wilroy of about 1 to 1 1/2 acres in size, O'Grady said.

After that - well, the city of Suffolk has about 7,000 acres of land available for industrial development.

What can Suffolk offer that other localities can't?

Land. Lots of land.

``We're trying to set aggressive price breakers on industrial property,'' O'Grady said. ``We offer fast-track permitting, a certain quality of life, executive housing on the Nansemond River, affordable housing throughout the city. We work closely with state and regional economic development agencies. We try to leverage those agencies by being extensions of them.''

And Suffolk, he pointed out, is ``closer to ports than Franklin and Southampton County, a more convenient location to serve metropolitan areas, yet we share similar assets with the surrounding area.''

The city's available industrial land is clustered in three areas:

the Harbour View area off U.S. Route 17 near the Chesapeake/Portsmouth line; in northern Suffolk between the village of Driver and the Chesapeake line, surrounding the 700-acre Northgate Industrial Park, a plot the city is still negotiating; and near the inner city, where several established peanut operations, like Planters and Birdsong, have enjoyed prosperity for years.

Suffolk also has a foreign trade zone that allows companies to import commodities and avoid paying tariffs on those goods until they leave the trade zone. The Suffolk Industrial Park allowed an expansion of that zone from 25 acres to 150 acres, O'Grady said.

And recently, the city was able to establish another small foreign trade zone in the Lakeview Industrial Park East. The zone was created specifically for FAG Bearings, a German company that imports industrial bearings and must keep a large inventory on site to answer the demands of its customers.

Foreign trade zones are controlled by the Virginia Port Authority under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In addition, Suffolk has an enterprise zone surrounding the core city, offering tax incentives to companies that locate there.

The IDA board also has recently established a real estate commission on city-owned industrial properties. Until this was done, agents showing local lands to developers were offered no incentive to encourage the shopper to buy and locate here. Now, they have more reason to steer industrial developers in Suffolk's direction.

Some developers are seeking pre-constructed buildings, O'Grady said. And Suffolk has them as well - over 5,000-square-feet of space available for sale or lease.

If the city still has some problems to overcome in its future of industrial and commercial growth, it might be its existing transportation problems.

``One recurring theme that seems to work against us is that a lot of companies want to be on the I85-95 corridor for quicker access,'' O'Grady recently told the board. ``Our location seems to have worked against us with a couple of recent prospects.''

But McConnell feels that transportation routes surrounding Suffolk have improved enough in recent years that access shouldn't be a deterrent to companies looking for a home.

``It's so much easier now to get to places like Virginia Beach, Franklin Newport News,'' he said. ``Today, people are the key. We've got to maximize our labor efforts. Companies are finding it harder and harder to find skilled employees. We've got to be labor competitive.''

The land is here. With a population expected to more than 100 percent in the next 20 years, the labor force could well be on its way. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

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