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After 10 Years, Southridge Centre Park Has Only Four Tenants and No Office Buildings

CHARLESTON, WV-The 380-acre park had been promoted as a dynamic addition to Kanawha Valley's economic development efforts and appeared to be off to a good start with three tenants in 1991. Part of the problem is that it's too far from Interstate interchanges.

By Robert Anthony | Updated on December 20, 2000

CHARLESTON, WV-In 1991, the Southridge Centre Business Park here in the hills of West Virginia had already attracted three tenants before most roads and sewers were completed. But nine years later, there are still no office buildings in the park and it has attracted only one additional employer, a telemarketing firm. And the city had to pitch in $400,000 in 1995 to make that deal happen. Charleston is 180 miles south of Downtown Charlotte.

Today about 1,000 people work in the park at a US Postal Services mail processing facility, the National Weather Service, the regional jail and the telemarketing firm. It is estimated the park, which has lots of hills and valleys unsuitable for development, has the potential room for another 1,000 jobs.

The Business & Industrial Development Corp., a public-private partnership designed to promote the Kanawha Valley, developed and manages Southridge Centre Business Park. According to a published report citing BIDCO president Bill Goode, about $8.5 million has been invested in the park and another $1 million is needed to complete the infrastructure. Goode inherited the project when he became president in 1997.

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