Gerald McDonald: Shell buildings can help draw industries to region

The method used by businesses to decide where to locate a new industrial plant in is often referred to as "a process of elimination."

Companies usually begin a site location search with a set of critical factors that a community must have if it is to be considered for new investment. Those factors will change depending on the type of industry. Sometimes it's a workforce issue, sometimes it's incentives and often it's simply the cost of doing business.

Our experience at HADCO has shown that over 80 percent of the industrial prospects considering the Huntington area are looking for an available building. Having an available building that meets a company's requirements can be the difference between attracting new jobs or being eliminated from consideration.

This is why early on HADCO embarked upon an aggressive effort to construct shell buildings in Cabell and Wayne counties.

Shell buildings are just that. They have a foundation, four walls, a roof, windows and doors and that's about all. Generally, they don't even have a floor, sprinklers or heating systems as different buyers have different needs for this interior infrastructure.

The premise behind shell buildings is a simple one: Industries looking for sites for new factories don't want to know what communities can have available in six months. They want to know what's available now. Shell buildings can be fit-up to their specific requirements, which offers tremendous flexibility to the company.

HADCO has constructed six shell buildings. All have been leased or purchased by either European, Japanese or domestic U.S. manufacturing companies. Some of the shell buildings already have been expanded and are the home to hundreds of new jobs. Shell buildings have created over $50 million in capital investment for the area.

Okuno International, a Japanese manufacturer of hydraulic cylinders, purchased our first shell building, a 55,000-square-foot structure created at the A. Michael Perry Prichard Industrial Park. Company officials said they selected the Prichard site over about 60 others. One factor was the short time period for set-up because of the shell building.

Allevard Springs, a manufacturer of automotive stabilization bars in Wayne County, was attracted to the area partly by the availability of a 50,000 square-foot shell building. That building has since been expanded to 215,000 square feet.

Currently HADCO is constructing its largest shell building to date. It is a 100,000-square-foot building at the HADCO Business Park off of W.Va. 2 in Cabell County. Although it will not be completed by this summer, the building is already attracting attention of industrial projects.

Also, HADCO will begin work this summer on the construction of a 30,000-square-foot shell at the Tri-State Airport. This facility will be geared to attracting a new aviation-related business to the area. Once this project is complete, we will look at locations in eastern Cabell County for a shell building next year.

Another take-off on the industrial shell building is what is called flex space. Flex space is a smaller building, which can accommodate multiple tenants and is geared for the expansion of existing industry. HADCO and a private developer recently constructed a 32,000-square-foot flex building in west Huntington that was leased to GC Services for the addition of 500 new jobs. A new 20,000 square-foot flex building is now under construction at the same location.

We at HADCO plan to continue building these shells. Shell buildings are one important part of our economic development strategy. They continue to serve as magnets for new and expanding industry and do create new job opportunities for the area.

Gerald McDonald is president of the Huntington Area Development Council.