News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville continues to market the Lemon Farris site off Highway 111 to prospective industries, but Community Development Director Jon Ward said more work will be done in the months to come.
“The grant is still open,” Ward said. “We have not completed the work yet, the due diligence work on the site, but we hope to have that completed very soon.”
Ward that work will make the site, located between Highway 111 and Interstate 40 more suitable for development.
“It means they would perform some preliminary test on the property, such as geotechnical test, things that a prospective user of the property would want to do,” Ward said. “It’s just kind of getting ahead of the game and having a lot of those T’s crossed and I’s dotted already and having some additional data about the property.”
With changes in the community development department, including its creation and the retirement of Economic Development Coordinator Melinda Keifer, Ward said the project has not been a top priority.
Ward said the amount of acreage within the city makes the property one that could be a target for prospective employers, though noting has come up recently. Large acreage tracts are not available in the city limits.
“The original grant application we applied for was to do clearing, some of the things we really think would be necessary to move the needle for the property,” Ward said. “It’s difficult to see it very well from the street. When you’re trying to show it to somebody, you don’t get a very good perspective on it.”
