John Coffelt, Editor

During the Feb. 15 Coffee County Industrial Board Meeting, Director Stephen Crook succinctly briefed the group on Governor Bill Lee’s upcoming preliminary budget includes the purchase of the Coffee County Megasite.

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development plans to buy $20.5M of property in Coffee County next fiscal year to have a new 1,900-acre site for development.

Following the meeting Crook called the proposal a first step in the acquisition.

“We still have a lot of processes to go through to maybe get this to that point,” he said.

He said that the purchase is in the governor’s proposed budget is a good sign that “we could this thing locked down in the long term and put together a strategy to develop it.”

Crook said the Industrial Board’s role if the acquisition goes forward will be at the discretion of the state. “In our conversations we, feel that it’s been a very positive relationship to date. My expectation is we will continue to market the site for development purposes, working alongside them just as we have to date,” he said.

Crook said that when a governmental body acquires a property, be that state, federal or local, you have a “longer runway to identify the selected infrastructure improvements you want to make, plan for workforce strategies and training programs that align with your goals,” Crook said.

“The state would be taking the lead charge in all of those activities, working in concert with us at the local level… At the Industrial Board we would be well-suited to serve as the primary point of contact. We have the relationships, the contacts and experience, and we’d be very excited to work with them in developing and implementing a strategy to get the site developed for a major development opportunity,” Crook said.             

The site purchase is part of the department’s request for $227 million in non-recurring spending increases and a $27 million recurring spending increase presented to the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee.

TNECD Commissioner Stuart McWhorter told state leaders, “There is going to be infrastructure spending required for the site,” but no additional spending is planned at this point.

Crook, talking to the Industrial Board members present, cautioned that this is only a proposal, not an approved item as yet.

Officially dubbed The Middle Tennessee I-24 Industrial Site, the Megasite is a 2,000 acre site just east of Manchester located between Highways 55 and 53.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.