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FIELD OF DREAMS?
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 -- 12:18 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
“If you build it, they will come.” Planners hope that famous movie line is fitting for a 71-acre area in Owen. Ground was broken there yesterday for the Clark County Agribusiness Park.
Just up the road from that parcel is the future site of a 50,000 square foot Agriculture Innovation Center. That building will cost about $9.8 million to construct. Planners have secured a $4-million federal grant and are working to raise the rest of the money through private donations.
"You take a look at this area, it's ag," explains Executive Director of the Innovation Center project, Mike Kawleski. "Ag, ag, ag. We know ag very well. This makes the ag industry in this area of the state stronger for years to come."
So, you put a building up and businesses are just going to flock to Owen?
Kawleski says the building will have laboratory space, a distance learning center, public meeting and event space, a computer lab, offices for lease, a commercial test/classroom kitchen and multiple “smart” classrooms. The goal is to help fledgling companies get off the ground, instead of “hitching their wagons” to bigger companies.
"Companies are interested in having satellite offices here, they're interested in the educational facilities and the meeting facilities for training. We have entrepreneurs that are interested in having research done at the center," he says. "We have one company that will announce very shortly that they will be an anchor tenant for us. They're a food-testing company."
"They want to expand in this area because it's the nexus of all those companies," he says.
Scheduled for groundbreaking in early 2011, planners expect the agribusiness center to be finished and filled within the next three to five years, and create at least 240 jobs.
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