Editors’ Note: Virginia Business produced the following stories in cooperation with the Mount Rogers Partnership/Peaks of Virginia.

Land that once was rolling farm fields has been scraped into a fledgling industrial site called Progress Park. Hawthorne, director of the Wythe County Industrial Development Authority, is happy to point out that it’s next to the intersection of two interstates, 81 and 77. There’s not much there to look at there today, just a half-mile access road and one still-empty 40-acre site — but don’t overlook the gamble that the park represents. Wythe County, population 25,000, borrowed $3.3 million of the $7 million it cost to start the first phase of the park, which was completed this spring. The town of Wytheville borrowed $1 million to run a waterline there. Not huge dollars, perhaps, compared to those being tossed around in wealthier localities, but those places have a stronger commercial base — and more flat land. "That’s the challenge we face in developing industrial property here," Hawthorne says. "We have to invest a significant amount of [money] in just preparing sites."

Steven Irvin (left), chairman of the Wythe County Joint Industrial Development Authority, and Executive Director Alan Hawthorne, at Progress Park, the county's new industrial site. Photo by Wayne Scarberry

The risk is necessary. The region needs jobs — unemployment here is close to 6 percent, while the statewide average is 2.5 percent. They’ve got plenty of workers — the interstates put the region within a 45-minute drive for a labor pool of 150,000. The only missing piece has been ready-to-build sites, Hawthorne says. In years past, companies — often manufacturers, which dominate the local economy — would come to the region looking for a new site and be turned off by the lack of sites. "They’d say, ‘OK, this is a great place, what do you have for us to build on?’ And the answer was, nothing," Hawthorne says.

The region’s industrial base is dominated by manufacturing — 35 percent of the workforce is employed in that sector, according to U.S. Census figures, though that’s expected to drop in the 2000 count. It has a cluster of auto parts manufacturers, Hawthorne says, and he predicts others in that field will find the park appealing. More ambitious plans are being laid, though. Hawthorne and others want to see an inland port like the one in Front Royal in the southern part of the park, and are pursing grant money to build rail service there. There are a lot of hurdles to getting the port project — it would require the General Assembly’s approval and support from the Virginia Port Authority. And Hawthorne says the region would have to get a container user of 5,000 to 10,000 containers a year to get the interest of Norfolk Southern Railway to come in. Even so, the large-scale plans reflect the region’s hopes that this project will put it on the map for something other than mountains. "By anyone’s standards," Hawthorne says, "this is a big park."

The new park is not the only one in the region getting a boost from local dollars. Washington County was so anxious to get a tenant in its Glades Highland Industrial Park recently that it agreed to spend $400,000 to extend a natural gas line to the park to serve one company, Utility Trailer Manufacturing. When the local gas company said the trailer company’s business wasn’t enough to justify extending a gas line, the county agreed to pay for it — so long as it could keep any profit margin during the next 10 years above the trailer company’s use. Assistant County Administrator Christianne Parker says the county expects to get back most, if not all, of its investment. The trailer company took 130 acres of the 410-acre park, which is being developed by Washington and Smyth counties. The two localities plan to sink more money there. They’re seeking a $1.3 million grant from the state’s Industrial Site Development Fund to help pay for construction of an 87,500-square-foot shell building. The counties are also seeking to have the park declared an Enterprise Zone.

Washington County is also working on its technology infrastructure. It has a guarantee from Sprint that it will extend fiber optic cable to two developing industrial parks in the county within 45 days, if needed. Parker says this is especially important for the Westinghouse Industrial Park south of the town of Abingdon, where the county bought 180 acres in December. Three of the past four prospects that toured the site were technology-related firms, she says.

Infrastructure improvements are key to the region’s plan to replace jobs lost in mainstay industries in recent years. Since 1996, for example, Carroll County has had five plant closings, mainly apparel and furniture companies, industries hit hard by NAFTA. The closings took 1,040 jobs. But other industries have risen to at least partly fill the gap. In 1994, Magnolia Manufacturing, a textile company that makes yarn and thread, spent $25 million on a new plant in Carroll that today employs about 350 people. A second plant, in the Carroll County Industrial Park, was opened in 1998 by Magnolia’s sister company, Parkdale Mills. That $17 million project created 40 new jobs. In Grayson County, insulation maker Tritex spent $4.4 million to set up in the county’s only shell building last fall, creating 30 new jobs. In Bristol, Ball Corp., which makes the tops to beverage cans, did a $14 million expansion of its facility last year. The vacuum cleaner maker Electrolux spent $8 million on an expansion of its facility in 1999 as well, and the two projects combined created 150 new jobs.

There are improvements the region’s road network as well. Work on the expansion of nine miles of I-81 near Bristol from four to six lanes should be finished by next spring. In Grayson, U.S. 8 is being expanded to four lanes, which will open up a link for much of the county to I-77. That should make a big difference to timber and sawmill businesses, which have a major presence there, says County Administrator Don Young. The region is also crossed by U.S. 58, the east-west corridor that runs from Hampton Roads to the state’s southwestern tip. The Virginia Department of Transportation has been making improvements to the road for more than a decade and is now widening to four lanes a stretch of the road west of the town of Galax.

While the region hasn’t fared as well as the rest of the state in creating jobs, it has experienced significant retail development along its main highways. Bristol City Manager Paul Spangler says the city has recent seen construction of seven restaurants, a 14-screen theater and two grocery stores. Another retail project of restaurants and gas stations is underway at an I-81 exit in the city.

Hawthorne hopes that Progress Park will be the next spot along the interstate to see a new project. Developing the entire park will take time — if the park attracts three new tenants a year, it still has a more than 10-year supply of sites. One challenge is getting the funds to turn more of the park’s undeveloped land in to ready-to-build sites. That work might have to wait until the first site is sold, unless the park’s supporters kick in more money now. Hawthorne says the park will be developed "as fast as as we get funds to do it." Getting the first site filled might be the toughest, he says. "Everything I’ve read indicates that it will be slow until somebody breaks the ice."