News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Upper Cumberland Development District recently broke ground to build a new facility in Cookeville.
UCDD Executive Director Mark Farley said he’s excited for construction to get underway.
“Our current building, we’ve been in it since the mid 1970s,” Farley said. “It’s got quite a bit of wear and tear on it. Our biggest issue with where we’re currently located…is we’re landlocked in and we have no room to grow. We’re on a fairly small building site and we’ve added on to it I think four times.”
The new facility, Farley said, will allow the agency to utilize its own building for large meetings, something they are currently unable to do.
“We’re also excited to have the opportunity to have some additional meeting places for some of our regional partners that may want to use our facility when they may need meeting space,” Farley said.
Farley estimates the new facility will cost between $3.6 and $3.8 million. He said the future of the agency’s current location on South Willow Avenue is unknown.
“We’ve got our building currently paid for and we’re looking to either to sell it or to lease it,” Farley said. “Hopefully that income will help go towards the new building, but we’ll have to go out and borrow some money to make this happen.”
Farley said he hopes the facility will be ready to open in approximately 15 months.
“Obviously it’s not going to be as quick as we’d like it to, but it’ll be looking somewhere in the fall 2019 hopefully,” Farley said. “The building pad is ready now, we’ve just not dug the footers yet.”
According to a press release on the groundbreaking, the facility will be located on England Drive near the intersection of Highway 111 and I-40.
