Construction on a 100,000 square-foot economic development spec building is underway in Graves County. Crews broke ground for the building last month in the Hickory Industrial Park. GCED President Ryan Drane said he expects the building to be completed in early April next year.
“Well, I’m actually at the site right now and we got almost all the site grading completed. So obviously a large building, not just the building pad but the truck dock area in the parking as well,” Drane said.
Drane said crews plan to start digging footers within the next week. The building will be expandable to roughly 400,000 square feet. He said GCED hopes the spec building will attract target industries to match the county’s workforce.
“The main ones that we’re looking at are automotive or transportation-related suppliers, any type of other advanced manufacturing, whether that be in aerospace, anything dealing with metals or extrusion, pressing…” Dran said.
Drane said those industries require skills that the community has “a lot of experience with.” He said GCED has tried to design the spec building with those industries in mind. He said no industrial buildings in Graves County are empty and the county has a shortage of buildings. GCED has also partnered with a private developer to build a 30,000 square foot spec building in Grace Industrial Park.
