VINA – Construction at Franklin County’s newest speculative building in the Vina Industrial Park is underway as officials prepare to market the building to businesses and industry across the country.

Site prep for the spec building started in January, but Franklin County EDA Executive Director Mitch Mays said the crew has experienced multiple delays since that time due to bad weather.

“We received a few heavy snowfalls this year and you can’t move the dirt in those conditions,” Mays said. “We’re hoping for good weather as we try to finish up this project and get the building ready to market.

“We have finished the site prep, poured the concrete and we have begun the actual erection of the building,” Mays added. “We think the building erection should go pretty quickly.”

On Monday, Sen. Roger Bedford as well as other officials toured the construction site to view the progress.

“This building will be a great benefit not only to Vina but for all of Northwest Alabama,” Bedford said. “Retaining jobs that we already have here and attracting new ones is a top priority.”

Mays said funding for the spec building was secured by Bedford through a bond issue from the state that will cover 100 percent of the costs. Mays added the bond issue also provided for a sewer system at the Phil Campbell Industrial Park as well as the Vina Industrial Park.

“One of the great things about a spec building is that it shaves about four to six months off a company’s construction time if they were going to build the building themselves,” Mays said. “All that will be left for a company to do is pour the floor and run the electrical and plumbing.

“Spec buildings allow the company to get into production quicker, pay down their capital cost and this will really affect their bottom line.”

Mays said the spec building in Vina should be particularly attractive to industry since it will only be 19 miles from the new Interstate 22, which makes it the closet spec building in the county to a major thoroughfare.

“Unfortunately, we’re in the middle of an economic downturn and companies aren’t looking at expanding as much as they were six years ago, but we will be in a better position once the economy recovers to market the area to industries,” Mays said. “Coming across a good, suitable building in a good area is hard, but Franklin County has several options, and I’m excited to have this building going up and to start marketing it soon.”