Published: May 16, 2008 10:57 am            

Interchange project attracts interest in King City

By TESA CULLI

tesa.culli@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — During the past year, the Jefferson County Development Corporation has received 33 new business and industry leads, with most of them still active, according to executive director Mary Ellen Bechtel.

“Many of them are a direct result of the overpass/interchange project,” Bechtel explained. “They are still active and we continue to field more leads every day.”

Bechtel said every inquiry received requires customized service, with the JCDC providing specifically requested demographic information, workforce information, hosted site visits, market information, photos, maps and information on taxes, Enterprise Zone benefits and other incentives.

“The biggest question I’m getting right now is what will it cost them to come to Mt. Vernon?” Bechtel said. “We’re really looking forward to the spec building being completed, because it will give us something to show as an available building. Over the last three years, we’ve had a lot of inquiries from manufacturing looking for 100,000 to 150,000 square feet of space available. We haven’t had that.”

Bechtel said many industry and warehousing businesses are looking for existing buildings for their projects.

“It’s a time issue,” Bechtel said. “They are ready to go now, they are looking at existing buildings to move into because they don’t want to spend the time waiting on a building to be constructed.”

According to information from the JCDC, 40 percent of the leads received by the organization were from industry. Right behind industry was developers at 35 percent; the retail industry and services industry each came in with 10 percent of the leads and the transportation industry came in with 5 percent of the leads.

“The interchange project has garnered a lot of interest,” Bechtel said.

“What they are watching now is how the infrastructure comes together and the zoning. Zoning is very important to them. We are getting a lot of questions in that area as they are looking to develop there.”

In addition, Bechtel said the JCDC new Web site has precipitated more leads for the area.

“They are looking at the market for particular information,” Bechtel said.

“They can get it from the website which links with a database system to give them the specific information they need.”

        

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