Cookeville – Hollingsworth Company, an industrial business company and the company that built Ficosa at Highlands Business Park, is looking to purchase two more lots in the park, Cookeville Community Development Director Jon Ward told the Upper Cumberland Business Journal (UCBJ).

The only thing standing in the way is approval by both the Cookeville City Council and, since the city and county are joint owners of the property, the County Commission. Their action would be to sell the lots and authorize the city manager to execute the agreement with Hollingsworth Company.

“There intent is to build two more buildings there,” said Ward to the UCBJ. “They want to market some business or industry.”

Ward said he thinks approving the sell would be a great thing for the local economy.

“It’s good to have an asset to market,” said Ward. “Attract jobs to your community. Most of the RFIs (request for information) we receive from the state economic development folks are searching for existing buildings. We have very few modern, vacant existing buildings in our market.”

Ward said most of the existing business in the market are full, and if they are not, they aren’t big enough to fill the need of someone like Hollingsworth.

“There is also the supply chain issue with construction materials,” said Ward. “They (empty buildings) are desirable to companies because of speed to market. I think it is a good thing in the community to have these.”

Preliminary plans for the site include a 152,000 square-foot building on one of the lots and a 227,000-square-foot building on the other, and the cost is in about $1.1 million.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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