Build-Ready sites are usually ready for immediately development
FRANKFORT, Ky. (Nov. 16, 2015) — A 15-acre site about 5 miles north of Mayfield in Graves County’s Hickory Industrial Park has been certified as Build-Ready, Gov. Steve Beshear announced today. The site includes a pad prepared specifically for an industrial and office facility of up to 125,000-s.f. Its Build-Ready certification takes care of required permits and studies and ensures infrastructure and utilities extend to the site.
“Certification by Kentucky’s Build-Ready Program signals to companies they can select, build and open a business quickly and efficiently,” Beshear said. “Employers looking to add new production locations, and the consultants who advise them, can do no better than to consider our stock of Build-Ready certified sites offered by forward-thinking communities such as Graves County.”
With the Graves County site’s recent certification, Kentucky now offers six Build-Ready sites. Efforts toward certification continue on more than a half-dozen others.
Build-Ready means a site includes a pad 50,000-s.f. or greater, expandable to 100,000-s.f. or more, utilities extended to an edge of the site, and the necessary permits and studies are in place including water, building, phase-1 environmental, archeological, historical and geotechnical.
The applicant—usually a city, county or economic-development group—must also provide preliminary design work, a total-cost projection, construction timeframes and a rendering of a potential building for the site.
“On a Build-Ready site, construction can begin almost immediately. Certification provides an advantage because the owner already accomplished most requirements,” said Mandy Lambert, business development commissioner at the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, which administrates the program. “That’s important since companies want quick turnaround — from the initial decision to build to the ribbon-cutting at opening. Our Build-Ready Program gives Kentucky the upper hand in competing with other states for those jobs and investments.
Ryan Drane, president of Graves County Economic Development, contacted the Cabinet this summer about getting the Hickory Industrial Park site certified. Within a couple months, he received the certification.
“This Build-Ready designation signals to prospective companies that both Graves County and the State of Kentucky understand the importance of time and preparation in the site selection process,” Drane said. “By investing our resources in advance, the company can shave months off its construction schedule and begin hiring employees, making their product and securing profits in record time.”
While preparations require some investment by the applicant, the cost is significantly less than designing and constructing a speculative building.
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