Big honors for economic development efforts in Van Wert.
An award was given to Stacy Adam, Van Wert’s Economic Development Corporation Director by American Electric Power for the work done to certify a site east of Van Wert’s Vision Park as "shovel ready" for the food processing industry.
“It reduces the time that it takes for them to prepare a site, the expense and reduces risk for potential investors as they’re searching for a site,” said Adam.
Adam says many entities helped bring about the "shovel ready" status.
“Austin Consulting was hired, a consulting group out of Cleveland, they came in and they looked at over 200 variables in six categories as they’re going through the certification process,” said Adam.
Besides Van Wert, AEP has certified sites in Lima and three other communities in northwest Ohio as "shovel ready" for potential food and beverage businesses.
Tim Wells with AEP says the Van Wert site has everything a business would need.
“The Van Wert site itself is perfectly situated for food and beverage manufacturing. Not only are the utilities in place to welcome a new manufacturer to the site, but from a logistical standpoint being on U.S. 30 and having close proximity to interstate highways makes it ideal for food and beverage manufacturing and logistics,” said Wells, who is manager of Economic Development and Business Management for American Electric Power.
Van Wert Mayor Jerry Mazur applauds the efforts to bring about the designation.
“I’m absolutely overwhelmed with the responses we’ve had so far and looking forward to some good things coming from this, absolutely. It’s a great facility and it’s very timely in that the food and beverage companies are looking for new sites all over the world, I guess. Hopefully we’ll be one of those sites,” said Mazur.
