Columbia Business times

Ashland grows toward airport, seeks high-paying industries

by Morgan Cook

Posted Friday, June 29, 2007

From the air, Ashland’s boundary is beginning to resemble a runway.

It’s a fitting shape, considering that the newly annexed tracts, mostly fields and forest, stretch to the northeast toward Columbia Regional Airport and represent what the city hopes will be the perfect place for new businesses to land.

At Tuesday’s Ashland City Council meeting, members voted to annex 475 acres, which will run along the south side of Route H, stretching from U.S. 63 to the west side of the airport.

The city is also in the process of developing the Ashland Industrial Park, which is just south of the newly annexed property and is part of 800 acres annexed by the city in 2000.

Combined, the annexed land doubles the physical size of Ashland, located 20 miles north of Jefferson City.

The city decided to expand toward the airport, City Administrator Ken Eftink said, to attract industries that pay well, thus helping to raise the overall standard of living.

With unemployment in Boone County 35 percent lower than the statewide average, the problem is not the quantity of jobs but the quality. Average wages have fallen nearly 8 percent in Boone County since last July, while the average wage in Missouri increased by 5 percent.

Because industrial jobs usually pay better than service-industry jobs and often come with benefits, they have the potential to better support area families, said David Meyer, marketing director for Regional Economic Development Inc., or REDI.

“We’re losing some manufacturing jobs—we know that—and a lot of the new jobs are being created in the service sector,” Meyer said. “As the population grows, the total number of jobs is increasing, but the concern is that the quality of jobs keeps up with the population.”

The acreage annexed Tuesday begins at the southeast corner of Route H and U.S. 63. It is a voluntary annexation, made up of the 198-acre Wren tract and the 272-acre Debson tract.

Unlike Ashland Industrial Park, Eftink said, the land would be zoned for both airport planned industrial and airport planned commercial use. The new site could support hotels, restaurants and subdivisions that would help generate airport passenger traffic, he said.

The 23-acre Ashland Industrial Park looks more like a newly planted field than the city’s field of dreams. But beneath the turned soil is an $80,000 sewer system and telephone lines capable of delivering high-speed Internet service.  

The park, located on Angel Lane, is owned by Brian Duffield and Larry Butler, who own a small development company in Columbia called Sanron. The land has been zoned for airport planned industrial use, which could include warehouses and contractor yards.

While there are no immediate industrial prospects, Ashland Industrial Park is ready for a ground-breaking.

“There aren’t that many shovel-ready sites,” Eftink said. “This was an area where we’ve tried to provide those services. They’re somewhat limited, but they’re there.”

The private project may not have reached this point without public money. Seeing a long-term opportunity for increased tax revenue and jobs to fuel its growth, the City of Ashland fronted money for the sewer system. The city expects to be paid back through usage fees, charged to companies that locate in the industrial park. Like the developers, the city has taken a financial risk.

Duffield and Butler said the land’s proximity to the highway and the airport made it an investment with strong potential for turning a profit.

Location, however, was not enough.

The service most needed to support growth was a sewer system. The new system can process up to 3,000 gallons of water a day—enough to support employees but too little to support food processing plants, restaurants, hotels or subdivisions, Eftink said.

It might be comparatively small, but it’s the push Duffield and Butler needed to move the project forward.

Duffield and Butler have put the land up for sale. The price is subject to negotiation, but when the land is developed, it probably will go approximately $2 per square foot, or the high $80,000s per acre.

Duffield said that because Sanron is still a small business, the company doesn’t have enough money to build spec buildings. Investors or businesses willing to build are needed to move the project forward.

Lucy Nichols, a Columbia real estate agent, said she is speaking with a few perspective businesses but declined to name them.

The park is “shovel ready.” Now, all hopes hang on finding someone with the money
to dig.