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To assure the growth and health of the manufacturing industry in Washington County, the area needs to come to terms with what manufacturers want, and it isn't what they wanted 20 years ago.
Offering a ready labor force and governments willing to offer incentives remains important, but now corporations are looking for more, and the competition for their investment is stiff.
"The future is tied to providing what the market is looking for, and what it's looking for is pre-existing buildings with all utilities in place, and incentives," said Andy Kuhn, executive director of the Southeastern Ohio Port Authority. The port authority is the economic development agency for Washington County.
"When people look at our region and request information about it, the average size building request is 92,000 square feet, and the average land request is 50 acres," Kuhn said. "And that's with utilities present, not just a property.
These companies are looking to get into the market as soon as possible, and the burden is on the communities to supply what they're looking for."
Kuhn said Washington County and the region are competing against areas that might already have speculative growth systems in place, a targeted sort of build-it-and-they-will-come concept.
In addition to trying to attract new business, Kuhn said, the area has to be attentive to the growth and expansion needs of its existing companies and facilities.
"Many are looking for additional room to grow, and they're applying to their corporate ownership groups to justify reasons for expansion," he said. "They already have faith in our area, but we don't have those sites ready for development. It's a challenge for every community in the U.S. that doesn't have speculative growth in place."
Kuhn offered as an example of the value of speculative growth the recent expansion of the Hino truck manufacturing plant in Williamstown. Wood County Economic Development had held onto the disused, 1 million square foot Coldwater Creek distribution plant in Pettyville, which along with about 115 acres around the facility met Hino's needs. The company committed to an investment of $100 million and the creation of 250 new jobs.
"The state, the county, the municipalities all got involved in that," Kuhn said. "It's a monument to collective effort in the long-term development of a property."
If other communities are offering incentives plus developed properties, that's the competition Washington County is up against.
"It's going well above what was considered best practices 15 years ago," Kuhn said.
Kraton Polymers, which manufactures synthetic materials used as replacements in applications for rubber, has worldwide operations, and one of its six facilities is in Belpre on the Ohio River.
In the past decade, according to Global Process Technology Manager Matt Smith, the company has invested about $120 million in expansion and modernization on the plant, including converting its boilers from coal to gas, which both decreased the operation's carbon footprint and allows it to generate approximately 25 percent of its electricity on-site.
The plant receives most of its raw material by barge, shipped up the Mississippi and Ohio from petrochemical operations on the Gulf Coast, and a smaller amount by rail, Smith said. Finished products are shipped out by truck, he said.
"This is an excellent location with the river, train and the interstate highway," he said.
Kraton employs about 424 people, human resources business partner Kim Stewart said. The Mid-Ohio Valley has the added advantage of being home to a well-trained and reliable pool of skilled labor, she said.
"We're very satisfied with our location," she said.