Tuesday, August 08, 2006

By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com

The Greater Paducah Economic Development Council now has options on about 1,000 acres of western McCracken County property near the Ohio River for large-scale industrial development, but no deals are imminent, Chairman David Denton says.

"More than one company is looking at the land," he said. "All looks at this stage have been very preliminary, and we are certainly not exclusive. We don't even know if we're on the short list. There are companies looking up and down the riverways of America, and we're one of the places that has received at least one look."

McCracken 'Fiscal Court will meet at noon Thursday in closed session to discuss a proposed industrial project in' the same general area of the county but unrelated to the 1,000 acres. Judge Executive Danny Orazine said a company has options on land near the Tyler Mountain Water plant off Carneal Road. He declined to name the company.

"It's a two-pronged project that we'll be talking about with them, one with about 40 jobs and another with 25 to 30 jobs," he said. "The court has to decide whether we want to pursue one part."

The 1,000 acres are bounded by Noble Road, Bobo Road, and the Ohio River. Representatives of one firm visited in early June, but Denton said the name wasn't revealed to local officials, and they didn't know whether a manufacturing plant or some type of commercial development was being considered.

Some of the options are set to expire in late November, "but there is a six-month additional option period on most of them," Denton said. "There are other tracts that would be nice to have, and I don't think it's any secret those people have been contacted. There have been some discussions with those property owners."

The site encompasses 206 acres that the Paducah-McCracken County Riverport Authority acquired earlier this year from Paducah Water. The land is described as the last piece of McCracken County property along the river that can be developed for industry.

Orazine said the area includes some property that the county scrambled to get options on 10 years ago for a large grain processing plant that ultimately went to Indiana.

"We've had someone looking nearly every year but no takers," he said, nothing that other potential uses were for a steel mill and coal terminal. "Sometimes it slows you up when you don't have the property in hand. We may look at trying to buy it or keep it under options."

As published in the Paducah Sun on August 8, 2006