COLUMBUS – Lawrence Economic Development Corporation officials told state leaders Thursday that the organization has an option to purchase the South Point Industrial Park – a significant step toward marketing the area to potential industrial clients.

Friday, May 19, 2000

COLUMBUS – Lawrence Economic Development Corporation officials told state leaders Thursday that the organization has an option to purchase the South Point Industrial Park – a significant step toward marketing the area to potential industrial clients.

"The option gives us until Dec. 15 to pay the first half and until December 2002 to pay the second," LEDC executive director Pat Clonch said.

Total price is $3.65 million, to be paid to current site owner Ashland Inc.

Mrs. Clonch and other chamber officials traveled to Columbus to detail development efforts – as well as plans to market the Lawrence County and Tri-State areas – to representatives of Gov. Bob Taft, Ohio Department of Development directors and the state’s First Frontier marketing group.

Two state-funded studies that will establish the LEDC’s goals for the next several years is nearing completion. And, the LEDC has contracted with Woolpert Inc. to design the South Point site’s Master Plan.

The next step, then, is to move talks with at least a dozen interested companies to the next level, said Roger Haley, industrial site manager.

"We’ve had some people waiting until we got control of the property before talking," Haley said.

Another company also wants to develop the site’s riverfront acreage into a port facility, but final action must wait until the LEDC receives official title to the park property in December when it makes the first $1.8 million payment.

That payment will come from the bonding and borrowing that the LEDC can now set in motion, Mrs. Clonch said.

The chamber has not signed any agreement with the company interested in the port but is working with company officials on permits and other needs, Haley said.

"They know they want to do it and they know what’s expected from our side," he said.

The LEDC’s continuing marketing study will work hand-in-hand with not only South Point site plans, but also plans of all county and city agencies interested in building up the area’s job future, chamber legislative committee chairman Bill Dingus said in a separate meeting Thursday.

"None of us are as capable as all of us," Dingus said. "We realize if we’re going to make this happen we were going to have to create our own future."

Dingus gave an overview of what local agencies and governments have been doing since the state agreed to fund a marketing study this year for local leaders.

There is a 12-person economic development task force working with The Results Group on economic development strategies, Dingus said.

And, local leaders realized they were not marketing their areas well, so the group broke that component out of the study and assigned it to Paul Werth Associates for a study, also paid for by state funds, he said.

The studies address several issues, including such needs as one specific plan, several shell buildings for future industries, support of existing businesses, direct advertising of community resources, community awareness of development plans,

It’s also necessary to establish a unified message from all government, economic agency and media contacts, so that interested companies hear the same recruitment speeches, Dingus said.

"If you have three leaders of economic development, when they talk to them, they should get the same message," he said.

Also, the local area needs to establish a rapid decision-making process so that when the state puts out the call for a site for an industry, the state receives a response within 48 to 72 hours, Dingus added.

The local group also shared its "positioning statement," or mission, for marketing the area:

"For growing businesses, the River Cities Tri-State Metro Area is the perfect combination of hometown and metropolitan business community that offers significant profit advantages."

T.J. Justice, director of the governor’s Region 7 Office of Economic Development, said he was impressed with Lawrence County’s response to the marketing studies, because they will help meet local job needs.

The common threads, like unified and coordinated messages, are important, he said.

"If you have two, three or four public officials doing it different ways, they walk all over each other and companies won’t take time to deal with that," Justice said.

State leaders, though, also wanted to see the studies contain interviews with companies like Cabletron and Intermet – which left Ironton last year – so local officials can reflect on prevention strategies, too.

There are several specific marketing goals that are likely to happen quickly, including advertising and Web site design.

The chamber is partnering with Columbia Gas to produce an advertising insert for an industrial property trade magazine, Haley said.

The insert will highlight Lawrence County and other areas, using aerial photos and lists of area development strengths, he said.

Also, the funds pledged by local businesses to market the former Cabletron building, now housing Liebert Corp., will be used to develop a Web site.

Work should begin this year. OUSC will take the lead role in helping develop the Web site, Dingus said.

State leaders and First Frontier officials who will match the local donations, are pleased with that plan because most industries look first for a Web presence, they said.

Ironton Business Association co-president J.D. Carey said IBA members would be pleased by that use as well.

"That was one thing missing that the people who did the marketing study showed us," Carey said. "The first thing companies do is go to the Web site."

Also Thursday, local officials heard from Ohio Department of Transportation deputy director John Hagen.

Hagen said plans for the Ironton-Russell, Ky., Bridge replacement are moving forward, but Ironton and Russell are headed for a compromise.

"Both cities have the same concerns," Hagen said.

Ironton would like the bridge to touch down in the business district, but that puts it in residential areas in Russell and people there also prefer it in their business district.

"We’re looking at what could be done as a compromise," he said.

That might mean a fifth alternative – stretching somewhere between Adams Street in Ironton and Bellefonte Street in Russell, ODOT officials said.