EDA to develop strategy for marketing commercial land at interchange; City Council to take up greenspace deal

Zoning map adapted by Midway Messenger shows most of Midway Station; for a larger version, click on it.

With all the industrial-zoned land in Midway Station under some sort of formal process leading to sales, the Woodford County Economic Development Authority will be focusing on how to market the commercially zoned land along Georgetown Road and Interstate 64.

The "sticker price" for the tracts zoned B-5, highway interchange service, is $2 million, so it's "a big deal," EDA Chair Michael Michalisin said. "That's our next real item we need to address . . . how to make that more salable." Sales are needed to retire the debt on the property.

Michalisin said board member Paul Schieffler had suggested that EDA needs to develop a marketing strategy for the property, and would "take a leadership role moving forward" on the topic.

Midway Mayor Grayson Vandegrift said the City Council would discuss on Sept. 8 acceptance of a deed from EDA giving it 38 acres, more or less, along I-64. The land, which is not platted for development, has been intended to remain a greenspace buffer.

Vandegrift reported that county Planning Director Pattie Wilson recently found 1991 City Council minutes that say the city was supposed to get "a scenic and conservation easement around the perimeter of the property prohibiting construction within 150 feet of I-64," plus additional easements to total 39 acres.

The mayor and EDA have agreed that the city would get ownership of the property in return for forgiving $500,000 to $750,000 of the debt owed to it by the EDA, most of which is for the natural-gas line built to serve Lakeshore Learning Materials, but not all of which is considered collectible. Vandegrift said he intends to ask the council to vote on the deal Sept. 21.

Wilson reported that Creech Inc. has filed a revised development plan for the lot it is planning to buy for a horse-muck processing facility, in time for the Planning Commission meeting at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10, and will submit site construction plans Sept. 8. Tom Creech told the board, "I'm ready to go."

Lucas Witt, EDA's new acting executive director, said he met with Barnhill Chimney, which has optioned 2.49 acres for a facility to manufacture chimney caps but has been off and on about going through with it. Witt said the company "fully intends to exercise the option," but hasn't said when. Michalsin said the company has been making its option payments and would bring "a fair amount of jobs . . . I think it's in the dozens." Barnhill has been quoted as saying that it plans to have seven to 10 employees at opening, 10 to 15 in a year and could have 30 in five years.

In the public comment period, Vandegrift said making the transition from former Chair John Soper, who had also been executive director, was "a tough task" but "everybody really did a good job pulling together." He added, "This was a time we couldn't lose steam, and we haven't. I'm as optimistic as ever about Midway Station's outcome."