VCEDA awards a grant of $5.6 million for Southern Gap park

GRUNDY – November 19, 2009 – The Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority awarded a more than $5 million grant today to the Buchanan County Industrial Development Authority for further development of the Southern Gap Regional Business Park located near Grundy.

At its Oct. 15 meeting, VCEDA approved a grant of up to $5,639,999 to the Buchanan County IDA for further development of the 3,000-acre park.

“The Southern Gap Park is considered one of the largest new business parks in the state,” said Jonathan Belcher, VCEDA executive director. “The Buchanan County IDA is interested in further developing the park by improving access roads and installing additional utilities within the park, including the development of a regional office park component.”

The grant is to be used to pay toward costs of road construction, sidewalks, and utilities installations and extensions at the park, built on reclaimed surface mined land.

“Southern Gap is one example of the productive use of reclaimed surface mined land,” said VCEDA Chairman Jay Rife. “Southern Gap already has its first business occupant, which has 250 employees and growing. Jobs are being created in an area where those jobs might not otherwise exist were it not for the flat land that was created by the mining process.”