Business Park

U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito stands underneath of an umbrella prior to a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the Tabler Station Business Park near Martinsburg, W.Va. Holding the umbrella is Jim Barnes, while Juston Sizemore, area manager for 84 Lumber, waits for the ceremony to begin. Capito helped obtain a $1.2 million federal grant in 2005 for infrastructure work in the business park. Along with 84 Lumber, A&S Warehouse and 167th TFR Federal Credit Union have signed contracts to purchase land in the park.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A company that bills itself as the nation's leading privately-held supplier of building materials and services to professional builders continues to expand operations in the Eastern Panhandle despite a downturn in home construction. "The mid-Atlantic area has been very good for us," said Jeff Nobers, 84 Lumber Co. vice president of corporate communications on Tuesday. "Even with the slump we're in, there's still a lot of activity. " "It's a cyclical business ... We know the market will come back," Nobers later added.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The Franklin County Board of Commissioners and the Letterkenny Industrial Development Authority agreed to a 20-year extension on a lease for a building in the Cumberland Valley Business Park that likely will become the county's new emergency communications center. "We have clearly outgrown the basement of the courthouse," Commissioner Bob Thomas said. "The building has to be somewhat retrofitted for a 911 center," he said of the warehouse. The county is in the third year of a five-year lease on Building 426, which it has used primarily for storage, including the county's voting machines, said John Van Horn, the authority's executive director.

The Washington County Commissioners heard two department budget proposals for the coming fiscal year at Tuesday's meeting. The Transportation Department is proposing an operating budget of $2.3 million, up slightly over fiscal year 2007's budget of $2.1 million. Much of the increase is a result of a grant to provide transportation to jobs at a business park off Hopewell Road. The Highway Department is proposing a budget of $9.6 million for fiscal year 2008, up from $9.3 million last fiscal year.

BARDANE, W.Va. - Jim Ruland calls it the "most desirable business address in Jefferson County. " Every building in Jefferson Business Park has fiber optic access, and security cameras on the campus allow business owners to view their premises by cell phone or computer. In other words, business owners can be at a remote location and check on their property, developers of the project said. "We have been pioneering commercial business infrastructure in Jefferson County since 2003," said Ruland, a partner in RAI Properties LLC, the firm that developed the park in the Burr Industrial Park.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The transfer of approximately 225 acres from the Cumberland Valley Business Park to the adjacent Letterkenny Army Depot received a green light Monday from the land's redevelopment board. No money will be exchanged in the transfer, Letterkenny Industrial Development Authority Executive Director John Van Horn said. Col. Robert A. Swenson in October shared a master plan for the installation's future, which included reacquiring the land due to be deeded over to LIDA.

Funding approved for new bus route Funding for a proposed new bus route to Hunters Green Business Center has been straightened out, a social services official said Tuesday. Department of Social Services Director David A. Engle told the Washington County Commissioners that a state agency that had balked at the funding plan now is OK with it. The plan to send County Commuter buses to the business park along Hopewell Road is estimated to cost $246,000. Engle said the Governor's Office for Children initially objected to letting Washington County use $166,000 the first year for the route, but since has changed its mind.

WASHINGTON COUNTY - The state has rejected a program in which Washington County would transport residents seeking work to jobs in the Hunters Green Business Center, County Commissioners Vice President William J. Wivell said Tuesday. The County Commissioners said they plan to send a letter asking the state to reconsider supporting the program and they might explain the program to state officials through a presentation. The commissioners in June approved a $246,000 grant-funded pilot program in which County Commuter, the county's bus system, would pick up county residents receiving temporary cash assistance and transport them to work in the business park along Hopewell Road.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - The first building to be constructed in Tabler Station Business Park is expected to be a new branch office for the 167th TFR Federal Credit Union, Berkeley County Development Authority executive director Bob Crawford announced Wednesday. "We are in business for the long haul," Credit Union CEO Lynn M. Haynes said in a news release issued by Crawford. "Every decision made, every dollar of capital spent is done with longevity in mind. We constantly strive for the future, as today is taken care of. This new location was a perfect fit to the credit union's mission," Haynes said.

A New Jersey-based trucking carrier plans to relocate from a leased site in Washington County to a planned $13.5 million, 72,000-square-foot terminal in a Halfway business park. The New England Motor Freight Inc. terminal will be on 40 acres off Newgate Boulevard across from FedEx Ground in the Hunters Green Business Center in Halfway. The Hagerstown-Washington County Economic Development Commission (EDC) announced the move Monday. Construction is planned to begin in June 2007 and be completed by July 2008.