A new shell building at Patriot Centre at Beaver Creek officially is on the market.
A ribbon-cutting was held Wednesday at the lot 8 shell building, located at 1320 Beaver Creek Drive in the industrial park. Speakers included Henry County Administrator Tim Hall, Henry County Board of Supervisors Chairman H.G. Vaughn and Martinsville Mayor Kim Adkins.
Hall described the shell building as "a true partnership" between the county, the city, the EDC, the county Industrial Development Authority (IDA) and other area organizations and businesses.
This collaboration has proven that the shell building program can and will be successful, Vaughn said.
"For the proof, you just have to look across the street to Commonwealth Laminating and Coating, or ... to RTI Metals Inc." Vaughn said, as both of those businesses have moved into shell buildings in the Patriot Centre.
"It has been a pleasure working with each of these companies, and we're glad that they have recognized the benefits of growing their company in our shell buildings, and we thank each of them for creating quality jobs for our citizens," Vaughn said. "With each shell building that we have constructed, we have learned a little something along the way to make the building more appealing to prospective industry."
Vaughn said he recently saw a statistic that 80 percent of companies considering expanding into an area will first take inventory of available buildings that the community has to offer.
"Having a flexible and available building will give us a significant advantage over an area that does not," he said.
According to Vaughn, the $3 million shell building, which was designed and engineered by Dewberry of Danville and built by Blair Construction of Gretna, offers 90,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 5,500 square feet of office space.
The building is on a 17-acre site, he said, and is designed so that a company in need of more space could remove the back wall and expand for an additional 90,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
"For our community, having a modern, well-built and readily adaptable shell building has proven to be a successful strategy in competing for economic development," Adkins said. "We are optimistic we'll be called to assemble again on this site in the near future, welcoming the next new business to the Patriot Centre and this community."
Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. (EDC) President/CEO Mark Heath had been slated to speak but was unable to attend the event due to a family emergency.
