The Spring Branch Industrial Park in Bradley County has received a $1 million grant for grading and site preparation to help ready the largest parcel at the tract, officials said Monday.
Doug Berry, the Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce’s vice president of economic development, said plans are to use the state grant money for a 55-acre parcel in the industrial park that’s located off Interstate 75.
“We’re trying to create pad-ready sites,” Berry said of the new 331-acre industrial park. “We’re seeing companies not willing to wait for a major grading job.”
For example, he said, a luxury coach manufacturer who looked at the property decided to go to upper East Tennessee. The time it would take to grade and prepare the site was a factor, along with the industrial park’s proximity to Chattanooga’s Volkswagen plant, Berry said.
“We’ve had four good prospects look at that property,” he said. “There’s too much work remaining from a site standpoint.”