Fulton County IDA makes $884,000 purchase to expand industrial park

Fulton County Industrial Development Authority met May 20, in a Special Called meeting at The Citizens Bank in Hickman with one item on the agenda. Chairman Cubb Stokes, along with members Susan Malone, Jim Martin, Debbie Weatherford, and Greg Curlin were present.

Stokes stated, “In previous meetings, I was given authority to negotiate land acquisition owned by Blue Grass Bioenergy in Fulton, adjacent to the Fulton Industrial Park. It has been a long process. We purchased last Wednesday (May 15) 110.5 acres for $884,000 for the Fulton County Industrial Development Authority to further expand the Fulton Industrial Park and to be able to market it to potential clients. This will give us the opportunity to grow in Fulton County.”

Stokes continued, “This is the result of the fruits of a long effort to obtain the property, which we believe is prime property for our industrial development park. It has rail and interstate access, and both Fulton Electric and Gibson Electric Membership Corporation in the area to serve the industrial park.”

Martin said, “The plan going forward is to get the site developed, subdivide it, the City of Fulton to start planning utility expansion to the property, and ultimately marketing the site to industrial users. Fulton-Hickman Counties Economic Development Partnership Executive Director Wendy Puckett is already working on this for some time.”

“We have contacted TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) to start working on and also an engineering firm,” stated Curlin.

“Some engineering work has already been done and we are waiting on some topographic work. We will be applying for a PEP Tech grant from TVA for cost-sharing on the site grading. This is a very unique site along the right-of-way of Class 1 rail. There is not a lot of property out there with access to the rail. Canadian National has previously committed to having access to the mainline. We have almost one mile of rail frontage from the Kayser plant all the way up to the Hickman County line,” stated Martin.

Curlin said, “This is an exciting opportunity for the Fulton County Industrial Development Authority.”

“Typically, the authorities are the property holding entity of these development sources. Any place you go in Kentucky, it is the Authorities that will own the land and pay the taxes. The non-profits are the marketing administrator arm of economic, as the authority is typically the landowner,” Martin said.

FCIDA Board member Rex Coffey was absent.