05/16/12 Tuesday evening the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission, Plymouth Industrial Development Corporation (PIDCO) and Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) took the first step in the development of a spec building by approving a Letter-of-Intent with Terre Haute based Garmong Construction Services. The proposed building is 45,000 square feet, easily expandable up to 135,000 square feet that will sit on PIDCO property along US 30 valued at approximately $2 million.
Jennifer Laurent, Executive Director of the MCEDC said, “Marshall County has many strong locational assets, specifically a high-quality transportation corridor in US 30 and US 31.” She continued, “And we have a stable industry base, which means not a lot of buildings are on the market.” She elaborated, “What we know is that most inquiries today are for large-scale, existing facilities, and we want to be in the best possible position to competitively respond. Most of the inventory readily available is of a size and age that is less than ideal for modern manufacturing.”
PIDCO Chairman, Mark Gidley explained that they have invested approximately $15,000 to make the site “shovel ready.” He said, “Garmong’s model makes sense in that the investment risk is shared and thus minimized on both the private and public sides.”
During last night’s meeting members of the Redevelopment Commission authorized negotiations to proceed for a development agreement with Garmong. Terms of the agreement will pledge a portion of the City’s Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) revenues to carry interest payments on the property from completion until it is sold or leased. It was estimated that interest on the loan would be $115,000 annually.
MCEDC staff shared positive findings with members of the Redevelopment Commission from research conducted on both Garmong Construction’s reputation for delivering and the impact of shell building projects on attraction efforts in similar communities.
Dan Tyree, Vice President of the Redevelopment Commission said, MCEDC, PIDCO and the City of Plymouth have carefully considered the shell building project as one component of an overall strategy for attracting new higher paying jobs.”
