In its quarterly meeting Tuesday, members of the Carter County Tomorrow board of directors voted to authorize an option contract on the 34-acre Matheson property.
Approval of this three-year agreement means CCT will pay the landowner $4,000 for a guaranteed price on the property, which helps CCT move forward with marketing the site to developers and also guarantees that if this price is offered, the property owners must sell.
“This is not a commitment to purchase, but it means that we have inventory,” said CCT Chairman Richard Tester.
If the owners, Harold and Jamie Matheson, locate a buyer, they may sell it, but Tester pointed out that if they find a buyer, it will be an industrial business that will provide jobs.
“We want to help him do that as well,” said Tester. “We’re just trying to market the product for them so there can be some industrial recruitment and industrial land that’s developed.”
The site is comprised of two tracts, a 22-acre plot and a 12-acre plot. The old Alcoa building sits on the larger of the two, and the other is undeveloped. Tester said these may be marketed to developers either separately or as a whole tract.
As part of the state Property Evaluation Program (PEP), this site was submitted with seven others for evaluation. Tester said the board should have the results from this evaluation within 60 days, which will guide the next steps for preparing the land and infrastructure for development.
“The PEP provides consulting firm expertise, and they will prioritize what’s needed to tell us what improvements are needed to make it more attractive to developers,” said Tester. “Once we know the improvements, we can start getting a price tag on those and making priorities.”
Determining baseline initiatives and recruiting businesses are on the agenda next to decide how to fund improvements.
Being a privately-owned property, it cannot be improved with public funding except through grants or other means, said Elizabethton Director of Planning and Economic Development Jon Hartman. The facility has been unoccupied for about a decade, according to Hartman.
The option contract locks in a purchase price for the whole tract at $4,469,000. If and when a developer should decide to purchase the land, CCT will either sell them the option for this price or sell the property at a more profitable rate.
“We can now market that property because we know how much it is going to cost,” said Tester.
Though every signature is not yet on the contract, Tester said all parties have agreed in principle, and the Mathesons have signed.
“This is a big step forward because the Matheson property is the closest to being shovel-ready of the other sites submitted,” said Tester.