MCRA Gets Results of Wood Products Feasibility Study

During this month’s Mingo County Redevelopment Authority meeting, Executive Director Leasha Johnson brought the board up-to-date on a recently-completed feasibility study conducted at the Wood Products Industrial Park.

Johnson said the park was originally developed to operate as an incubator for value-added wood manufacturing companies, as well as be ideally located in the heart of the Appalachian hardwood region.

At this ideal location, she said, the Wood Park could provide access to raw materials, as well as drying capacity, which, as a result, would lower each company’s capital costs for producing value-added wood products.

“Unfortunately, the transportation logistics, specifically the three-mile stretch of the two-lane road leading from U.S. 119 to the Wood Park, has been somewhat of a deterrent to manufacturing companies,” she said. “When the flooring plant closed last May, it became incumbent upon the Redevelopment Authority to reassess the feasibility of the park, to identify new business and industry opportunities, and to target potential investors to the site ... which is why we commissioned a feasibility study last fall.”

Johnson said the feasibility study was conducted with a $56,600 grant from the USDA’s Rural Business Development Grant program. She said the MCRA received the final feasibility report from its planning consultant, Ground Floor Partners, July 31.