- Jackson Technology Park North on County Farm Road is a $10M project to attract business and jobs to Jackson County.
- The idea is to provide everything a company needs to start building here.
- The first tenant — Midbrook Manufacturing & Fabrication — just broke ground at this new "shovel-ready" business park in Blackman Township, with a second in the pipeline, says the County's development agency Accelerate Jackson County.
- WATCH THE VIDEO for interviews with Accelerate Jackson County President and CEO Keith Gillenwater and Midbrook COO Jamie Willis, and footage of Jackson Technology Park North.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Jackson Technology Park North — a project years in the making…
"There's definitely a shortage of shovel ready sites in Jackson County," says Keith Gillenwater, CEO and President of Accelerate Jackson County (formerly: Enterprise Group).
I took a look at how things are progressing at this $10M project in Blackman Township.
Accelerate Jackson County is a public-private partnership aiming to bring businesses and jobs to Jackson County. Accelerate has taken the lead in bringing businesses into the area you see behind me.
It's called Jackson Technology Park North. The idea: a business park with everything a company needs to start building here. That includes water, sewer, gas and electric hookups.
The hope is that this turns into business…and jobs for my neighborhood.
"If I'm a company, and I'm investing my own money, I'm risk averse, right? If I have a chance to buy two sites, and one of them is a farm field and has never had any assessments done, and one already has an ALTA, and a wetland delineation, and a wetland determination, and soil borings done, I'm buying that one every day and twice on Sunday," explains Gillenwater.
First one in? Midbrook Manufacturing & Fabrication. Their new building is already going up.
Chief Operating Officer Jamie Willis says the company needs room for growth, wants to own its own building, and said the price and tax incentives were right.
"It's very incentivized for smaller businesses that are in manufacturing....Price of the property per acre is very good," says Willis. "And just being in a great business location that is conveniently off of the highway."
Midbrook is a Jackson-based company that — put simply — makes things out of metal.
Gillenwater says a second prospective tenant is in the pipeline. Between them, they're expected to create 55 new jobs.
As for the upfront expense — a combination of federal, county, and township funding — Gillenwater says it's a matter of staying competitive to attract and retain business:
"If we didn't have a shovel-ready site, and the community next door did, or the community two states away does, that's where they're going to go."
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