The problems with The Development Corporation and the Midway Industrial Park
Tomorrow a local community is asking for help. The people of the Midway Thorngrove community are having an open house and breakfast so people all over Knox County can learn of the pressure and tactics the Knox Community Development Corporation (aka “The Development Corporation”) is using to railroad and steamroll and industrial park into a rural community.
The breakfast is from 7:00 – 10:00 am at the Thorngrove Odd Fellows Lodge Hall for only $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for children under 12. All kinds of activities are planned at the Thorngrove Ball Field starting at 10:00 am including a Country Market, Cake Walk, Live Entertainment, Horse Drawn Wagon Rides, Auction at 2:30 pm, Drawing for Cash Giveaway, Homemade Ice Cream and more.
The following issues concern me about the benefit to Knox County and the way this has been handled.
First there is no definition of what kind of industrial park this will be. It has been said it would not be heavy manufacturing but there is still much wiggle room. It is most likely a distribution center. The reason Hackney was fought by the community was that it was too close to a school and the traffic from tractor trailers would endanger the school. This project is too close to a school and has the same traffic safety issues.
There are no customers. Stop the “Field of Dreams” madness. If you built it they MAY NOT COME.
The real costs of bringing utilities to this park have not been defined.
The real costs of improving corridor roads leading to the site have not been defined.
The cost of a local sewer plant have not been defined.
This process has been run through the system in record time. There is a fairness issue to the community that has been ignored. A request has been made to Knox County Commission for a thirty day continuance so a traffic study can be done.
Third party intermediaries have been found. There are Realtors, developers, and speculators being used as middlemen between TDC and the land owners. The average cost to TDC is $29,800 per acre but the landowners are getting only $15,000 an acre. That is an outrageous fee just to flip the land. It appears there is serious insider trading occurring with the blessing of TDC. These land owners are not being paid the full value of their property.
Unfair sales pressure is being put on the land owners as they are being told if they don’t sell their land the project will still go through and their land will be worth less so they better sell out now.
MetroPulse writer Rikki Hall is correct that the process is inverted. His comprehensive article is this weeks MetroPulse highlights many of the problems and challenges faced by the local community.
There are specialists that locate distribution centers. Have any experts been contacted about this location? This is a very illogical place for a distribution center. A more successful place would be in Loudon County at the 40-75 split.
The ROI is horrible. Once all costs have been accounted for this project could easily cost over 50 million dollars. So to create 2000 minimum wage jobs that equals $25,000 per job.
What is wrong with MPC and Knox County Commission? Are there any business people that understand ROI?
All of this at a time when six Knox County Schools are critically underfunded. Where is the leadership?
August 18th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Leadership? We don’t need any stinking leadership. We’re POLITICIANS and we have a DUTY to PAYBACK, with your money, to our CONTRIBUTORS, FRIENDS and FAMILY!
August 18th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
I can’t tell from the post or the MP article (which I only briefly scanned) who is making the mega $ flipping the land.
So who is behind this project and why?
Thanks.
August 18th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
If it is such a moneymaker, then the tenant/developer should pay the costs without any subsidies.
August 18th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
And if it’s not a big moneymaker no one should pay the costs, because it is not profitable. Funny thing is, we already have a mechanism in place to take care of that. It’s called the market. If only we could violently shake that into the pols heads.
August 18th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
So who is behind this project and why?
Mayor Mike Ragsdale is ultimately behind this project because he wants to be Governor. He needs to create jobs to do so. Any jobs. At any cost.
The Mayor’s proxy is Mike Edwards the President of the Knox Area Chamber and also President of the Knox County Development Corporation, known as “The Development Corporation”.
The people making big bucks are Woods Properties of Knoxville and some unnamed developers. A newspaper article next week will name them.
The Hardin Valley High School is being “cut to the quick” as Ragsdale tries to lower the price so he can afford the Midway Industrial Park which will create 2000 minimum wage jobs. The problem is that those jobs will be created at the expense of six underfunded schools and an underfunded Knox County School system.
Not only has the Mayor proposed a geothermal heating and cooling system which he claims will save 4 million dollars over 15 years, now he wants to build the school without brick. The construction will be cinder block which would be painted.
Geo-thermal units are notorious for breaking down. Their record is sketchy. Painted cinder block will have to be repainted ever 8 years. So the cost savings are actually expenses that are shifted to future Mayoral administrations.
Is this leadership?
What are the priorities of the Knox County Mayor? Cheap jobs or honoring his promise to fund education? A choice must be made.
August 20th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Is any planning happening in Knox County? The Midway Industrial Park is completely undefined. Is it an industrial park? It has been said it will be a park for distribution centers. That is why it has to be next to the Interstate.
Is East Knox County a good location for distribution centers?
Common sense dictates that distribution centers will be near the Interstate, on flat land, and near Interstate Junctions. So how does this site measure up? Horribly. It would be difficult to find a worse location for a distribution center.
It is on the wrong side of I-40. It is too far from I-75 and again it on the wrong side on I-75. It is very far away from the Orange Route which is a very important consideration.
The land is rolling with too much elevation change and to make matters worst it is some of the worst karst geography in Knox County. It has no utilities and there is no sewer plant in the area. The size of the sinkholes are tremendous and demonstrate how difficult this area will be to build roads on.
From a traffic standpoint it would greatly add to downtown traffic and would defeat the purpose for the construction of the Orange Route. With Air Attainment standards so difficult to meet in Knox County one has to wonder what thought process is occurring with TDC and the Knox Area Chamber of Commerce.
In the “Field of Dreams” fantasy world of “If you build it they will come” this is even dumber than the idea for the Knoxville Convention Center. After all of the talk with “Nine Counties One Vision” you would think that our local economic experts would realize that there are other superior areas for distribution centers that are not in Knox County. The much more logical sites are next to the Hackney distribution center in Roane County, Loudon County near the I-40 I-75 split, or anywhere near where the Orange Route enters 40/75. The free market will decide where to build distribution centers not the genius of local government.
So what does that mean? It means this idea will fail. Can you name one genius idea from local government where government built it and the people came?
It was mentioned to me that as soon as it becomes obvious that the distribution center idea is insane that it will be changed on the fly to become a Business Park. Why would Knox County spend 50 million dollars to create a Business Park after it just spent 5 million dollars to create a Business Park in Blount County? Do you remember what the excuse for that genius idea was? We were told Knox County was running out of land.
Did the left hand of the City of Knoxville ever tell the right hand of Knox County about the South Knox Waterfront project? Because part of that project is a tremendous amount of office and commercial space. How much will the South Knox Waterfront project cost? 139 million dollars.
Who will work in these fantasy jobs? Our children? The ones that are going to underfunded schools? Maybe that is already understood since the jobs in the distribution centers will be minimum wage jobs.
Why is it so difficult to get the priorities right in Knox County?
August 20th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Thanks for the info, No. 9.
I have obviously not followed this matter.
December 19th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
[…] The Midway Industrial Park is covered in great detail at the website KnoxAction.com. There have been many web posts on KnoxViews and at Say Uncle. It has received much coverage also at the News Sentinel blog No Silence. So with all of the known information that questions the risk and return on investment of taxpayer dollars the Knox County Commission chose to ignore the demands of those in the Thorn Grove community and the voice of taxpayers who see this as the biggest gamble since the Farmers Market. […]