Spec building expected to boost job market

By Staff
Melissa Cason
Mayor Johnny Brown and members of the Russellville City Council presented the Russellville Industrial Development Board with a check for $500,000 Thursday to fund a spec building to recruit new industry for the city.
Brown, Russellville Industrial Development Board chair Jeff Bowling, and Franklin County Development Authority director Mitch Mays said the spec building is a project that has been a long time in the making.
"This is not something that happened overnight," Mays said. "It's been a long time coming and a long time overdue."
The building will be constructed in the Russellville Industrial Park so that the city will have something ready for a potential industry. The incoming industry will purchase the building from the industrial board and the money will cycle back to the city, and ideally the process will start again to get another industry in the city or county.
"It's a like a revolving cycle," Bowling said. "That's the way a spec building program works."
Mays said potential industry is not looking for land where they can build. Instead, they are looking for a building already built and ready for them to make accommodations for their needs.
"Franklin County has been looked over because of our lack of industrial buildings," Mays said. "Other areas have had success with the spec building program and we expect to have similar success."
Brown said the building is important in order to get higher-paying jobs in the county so that local workers will not have to leave to find good work.
"We need this building to have something to offer," Brown said. "And if they decide not locate here, maybe they will keep our county or other close-by areas in mind."