Plans for a brand new “shell” building are coming together for the New Castle-Henry County Economic Development Corp.
Friday, the Henry County Redevelopment Commission passed a couple of resolutions and discussed a narrowed-down list of potential sites for the structure. A “shell” or “spec” building is a facility built to attract new business to the area. The most recent shell building was purchased by Boar’s Head, which is planning to expand operations into it.
EDC President Corey Murphy explained the resolutions were necessary to keep things moving in regard to the shell building project. It does not commit anyone to anything, he said.
“The redevelopment commission is taking steps to seriously explore and receive proposals from private developers – so we’re going out into the marketplace with an RFP (Request For Proposals) – seeking proposals from developers to construct a 50,000 square foot shell building expandable to 200,000 square feet,” Murphy said. “It provides us with information on what this will cost.
“This is a necessary step as we move down the road to secure a new shell building for economic development business attraction in Henry County,” Murphy added. “It does not today commit us 100 percent. All we’re doing today is committing to go through the RFP process.”
In response to a question about possible locations, Murphy said the site possibilities had been narrowed down to two – both properties the county RDC already owns.
“We’re looking at two sites, one immediately north of the Boar’s Head north shell building and another immediately west of that same building,” Murphy said.”We’re also looking at possibly building a road there. These resolutions put us in position to do all of that.”
Murphy emphasized the shell building process was in an “exploratory phase.” Lisa Lee of IceMiller added that this was a matter of the county RDC doing its due diligence on the project.
“There are several opportunities as we move through the process for us to examine the information that we learn, examine the landscape and perhaps say ‘this doesn’t make sense. We’re not going to move forward,’” Murphy said. “On the other hand, and what I’m personally hoping for is we get really good information, we get really good cost numbers, the information is favorable and we can move forward.”
– Story by Darrel Radford (DRadford@TheCourierTimes.com) of The Courier-Times. Read more local stories at www.TheCourierTimes.com.