Cookeville Named A State Grant Recipient For Site Development

The City of Cookeville will receive at least $25,000 in state grant money to complete due diligence studies at the Lemon-Farris Industrial Site off Highway 111.

The city is one of 12 recipients of state grant monies that total more than $8 million for site development. Economic Development Coordinator Melinda Keifer said that while it’s not the full amount the city requested, it will be instrumental in helping the city with site development.

“Grants like this are so beneficial to take sites that are basically, I think the best way to describe them as raw,” Keifer said. “Go in there, start moving the needle on getting them ready for market.”

Keifer said that due diligence studies help prepare the basic information developers need about raw sites. She said that it entails looking for aquatic and natural resources, and preliminary geotechnical studies.

Keifer said that it helps when a developer prospect comes to a site knows it has already been vetted. She said that grants like these are instrumental when it comes to helping get sites vetted.

“It is really almost critical,” Keifer said. “I know you hear in the news about sites that are ‘pad ready’ and of course that’s the preference of all prospects whether it’s new or an expanding industry is to be able to purchase a piece of land that they literally can go out and start building on (…) So it’s really critical. They’ve helped a lot of communities over the years with this program and we’re just real pleased to be a part of it.”

Keifer said that the next step is to seek professional services. She said that after the first of the year there are some compliance webinars and contracts that will have to go through. She said that hopefully this spring they will be able to due diligence reports.