(The following story by Marty Finley appeared on the News Enterprise website on April 9, 2010.)
GLENDALE, Ky. — The Glendale Industrial Site has flirted with large investments in the past, but a new certification will place it in elite company.
The railroad operator CSX Corp. has endorsed and certified the 1,551 acres as a mega site, which raises its national profile and places it in competition for high-caliber investments throughout North America.
“It just makes this site even more attractive and marketable,” said D. Dee Shaw, a member of the Elizabethtown-Hardin County Industrial Foundation board.
Greg Jenkins, chairman and CEO of the foundation, said the certification is the culmination of two years of work securing documentation and improving the site to a stage deemed worthy of the mega site certification. CSX approached the foundation about certification once the company identified the Glendale land as a potential mega site along its rail line.
Jenkins said meeting certification required environmental and archaelogical studies and a determination of infrastructure status and readiness of the site. The site already held logistical advantages as it sits near Interstate 65 and is within 50 miles of Louisville.
A mega site is not necessarily shovel ready, but it does mean the site could be readied for construction quickly in most instances, Jenkins said.
“It is an indication that a site is at a certain level of preparedness,” he said.
In this case, the property still requires extension of sewer service and other utility work, he added.
A formal announcement of the mega site certification is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday at the Glendale site along Gilead Church Road, just west of U.S. 31W. Jenkins said Gov. Steve Beshear, Larry Hayes, secretary of the Cabinet for Economic Development, and representatives of CSX are expected to attend.
The potential of the state-owned property has been explored in the past.
Hyundai considered building an auto manufacturing plant on the site about eight years ago, but chose Alabama instead.
In 2009, a consortium of companies partnered together as NAATBatt — the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries — tried to land millions of dollars in Department of Energy funding for a lithium-ion battery plant on the site. The consortium’s request was denied, slamming the brakes on the development. If the plant had materialized, it was projected to produce upward of 2,000 jobs in the area