The 160-acre Timberlake Industrial Park in Lexington, Tenn. is the latest speculative industrial land to be certified by the state as “shovel-ready” for prospective buyers. The land is publicly owned and prepped for industrial use in hopes of attracting industry investment. (Photo: Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development)
A 160-acre site in Henderson County is the latest publicly-owned speculative industrial park to be certified by the state as “shovel-ready.”
Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development will market the Timberlake Industrial Park in Lexington to a “targeted” group of site selection consultants for $40,000 per acre in hopes of attracting more industry to the small city of around 8,000 people.
The state has certified 78 sites through its Select Tennessee Certified Sites program since its inception in 2012, according to the Thursday announcement.
“The Select Tennessee Certified Sites program allows communities statewide to proactively plan and develop potential industrial sites,” said TNECD Commissioner Stuart C. McWhorter in a news release. “Having access to a shovel-ready industrial site can be the missing component a community needs to transform its economy with new jobs and investment.”
To be eligible for the program — and the grants it offers — sites must meet criteria aimed at making them attractive to potential private investment. That includes a minimum 20-acre footprint, utilities on site (or a formal plan) and certification from an outside consultant. Sites must also have boundary surveys, topographic maps, and environmental conditions and geotechnical analyses completed.
Sites certified through the program have received roughly $3.8 billion in capital investment since 2013. Hundreds of acres of land, much of it publicly owned, remains unused and available. Sites don’t have to be certified to be recommended by the state to prospective buyers, according to TNECD.
Lexington certified a single site with a footprint of a little more than 20 acres through the program in 2013. Medical device manufacturer Titan Medical announced it would invest $7.5 million to build a production facility on a portion of that lot in 2019, leaving roughly 20 acres of land still available.
The city purchased more raw land surrounding the property to turn it into a speculative industrial park, meaning each of the empty lots is prepared for industrial use but has not yet been selected by a company for development.
The Timberlake Industrial Park certified Thursday includes 155 acres of developable land divided into six parcels.
Lexington has received $3,871,495 in grants since 2017 to help cover the cost of development and site preparation costs while applying for certification, Director of Site Development Kirby Lewis-Gill said Thursday. While the state did not help Lexington purchase the bulk of the land, it did help the city acquire a small piece of property that will be used to construct another access road to the site, he said.
The program has certified 18 sites in West Tennessee, including:
- 5 in the greater Memphis area
- 8 in Northwest Tennessee
- 5 in Southwest Tennessee
Overall, the majority of sites certified statewide are located in rural counties.
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