IRONTON – The Lawrence Economic Development Corporation is spending about $10 million to establish an industrial park at the former Dow Chemical site west of Ironton.
The development corporation, the economic development arm of the Lawrence County Area Chamber of Commerce, has spent more than $3.5 million for nearly 300 acres of industrial property in Lawrence County, said Bill Dingus, executive director of the chamber and the development corporation. The development corporation also is buying about 80 acres of Dow property in Scioto County, Dingus said.
The cost increased to more than $10 million when the cost of seven buildings was added, Dingus said.
“We now own everything at the site except for the property owned by American Styrenics,” Dingus said. “We have multiple buildings and a lot of space we can use to bring new companies into the Tri-State.”
Dingus hopes to use some of those buildings to house companies that will locate in the area as satellite plants for the proposed $1.4 billion Braidy Industries aluminum plant planned off Interstate 64 west of Ashland.
“There’s great potential there,” Dingus said of the seven buildings at the former Dow site. “We plan to upgrade several of them. We see them as a spinoff of Braidy.”
“We hope to establish an industrial park there,” said Ralph Kline, assistant executive director of the Ironton Lawrence County Area Community Action Organization. “We are looking for tenants for those buildings.”
The square footage of the seven buildings at the site are 92,460, 80,487, 21,703, 10,930, 1,968, 22,140 and 6,803.
Meanwhile, the development corporation has purchased 3.06 acres in Perry Township for $297,500, according to property transfer records. The site is adjacent to the Grandview Inn. The development corporation bought 10.5 acres of property along U.S. 52 for more than $1 million earlier this year.
From Herald Dispatch | November 20,2017
