The Volusia
County Council has approved economic development grants to Ormond
Beach and to the City of DeLand to assist with the development of
industrial building sites. The awards are part of a matching grant
program initiated by the county Department of Economic Development
that is designed to spur the opening of industrial parcels for
manufacturing, warehouse and industrial employers. The two grants,
totaling $489,600, were matched by more than $900,000 by the two
participating cities.
“The county’s
capital investment in these two projects will encourage the
expansion of an estimated 44 acres of new industrial parcels capable
of supporting up to 400,000 square feet of new industrial
facilities, employment and future tax base,” said Pedro Leon,
Project Development Manager for the county Department of Economic
Development.
The county’s
investment of $189,600 in Ormond Beach will help fund part of the
city’s $680,000 development of 14 acres on the Tower Circle
extension in the Ormond Beach Airport Industrial Park.
The city’s
industrial park is home to 30 companies that occupy 1.8 million
square feet of space.
“This is
another example of the teamwork we have been able to develop with
the county’s economic development staff,” said Joe Mannarino, Ormond
Beach Director of Economic Development. “The county’s grant makes it
financially feasible for the city to create new parcels that could
accommodate more than 120,000 square feet of future industrial
space, resulting in jobs for up to 200 new workers.”
Construction
could begin this spring with the new building sites available to
future users later this year, according to Mannarino. “We have had
an increasing level of interest by potential prospects ever since
the project has been announced.”
In DeLand, the
county’s $300,000 economic development grant will be used to
facilitate construction of new road access to the undeveloped lands
in the northwest
section of the DeLand Business Park at the DeLand Municipal Airport.
“The city is providing more than a two-to-one financial match that
will help to fund infrastructure capable of opening access to an
estimated 30 acres of future industrial parcels,” said
Leon.
The project is
in the permitting phase and negotiation of wetland mitigation
reserves could be completed in the next few months. “This is an
important project for our economic development efforts,” said Dale
Arrington, DeLand’s Director of Community Development. ■
