Marshall County’s Southwest One Industrial Park is continuing construction on United Systems & Software’s 20,000 square-foot headquarters, the first tenant for the park.
Since the industrial park’s groundbreaking ceremony in 2019, much of the construction for the headquarters has been completed. United Systems President Scott Waldrop in written correspondence reported most of the drywall is up and the facility is being painted. He noted although they were behind their original May 2020 scheduled move-in date, the organization plans to move into the new facility in April 2021.
Waldrop said the global pandemic is not responsible for the delay and declined to specify the reasoning for the construction delay.
“The pandemic has been an obvious surprise for everyone,” he said. “While we were set up fairly well already to work remotely as a result of past preparedness, we became much more busy in the initial months of the pandemic as customers needed assistance with their remote working plans. It’s affected our ability to meet other prospects and our ability to move existing projects forward.”
Kentucky Lake Economic Development President Josh Tubbs agreed, adding that manufacturing businesses have remained stable amid the pandemic.
“The COVID pandemic has affected everything from A to Z. As far as I can tell, obviously, our small businesses have been hit very, very hard. Fortunately, our manufacturers have come out very strong, and hopefully that will continue,” he said. He added in a statement manufacturing businesses helped maintain consistency and dependability, factors which the economy needed “now more than ever.”
Tubbs also said a number of infrastructure projects at the industrial park were completed since the initial groundbreaking including water and wastewater projects, and a boulevard entrance to the park.
He said once complete, the park will help the greater west Kentucky region as more companies consider expanding or relocating.
“At the very fundamental level of economic development we must have a quality product to put in front of a site selector or corporate decision maker,” he said. “I'm excited about Southwest One Industrial Park because it adds another great location to the West Kentucky region that will allow us to proactively market our site and community assets to companies considering expansion or relocation. This creates investment, jobs, a stronger tax base and the ability to attract talent to join our already existing quality workforce.”
Nutrition company MegaFit Meals also had expansion plans in the industrial park. Company Director of Marketing and Athlete Manager Meg Parker said their project for the park was still in a development phase and hopes to begin construction soon.
