News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston currently preparing a grant application to begin a due diligence study and the design of a 100-thousand square foot industrial pad.
Downtown Redevelopment Commission Chair Gene Gantt said that the land would be used to recruit new industry. The pad will be built in Livingston’s city industrial park on the edge of the city limits.
“A lot of times when industries are looking at coming to a town they’re looking at existing facilities, what would be the quickest one to get into,” Gantt said. “And those type things entice the industry to come in, so the better prepared we are, the better chances we have of landing industries.”
The city has applied to the state for the grant, which would include the study and design followed by construction of the pad with utilities. Gantt said that the timeline of the project is now entirely dependent on how fast Livingston hears back from the state regarding the application. Gantt said that applications such as these could take anywhere from several months to half a year to receive an answer.
“Some of these grants take over a year to come to fruition,” Gantt said. “Some of the other grants we got going on we’ve worked on for a couple of years. Once you get the grant you have to go through all the processes for approvals from all the state agencies that are involved. It’s quite a lengthy process.”
Gantt said that he believes the length of time is the only current obstacle in front of the pad’s construction. He said that once the application is reviewed he doesn’t expect many obstacles, though it depends on the volume of grant requests the state receives.
