The Highland County Board of Commissioners gathered at the Leesburg Industrial Park on Friday, July 16 to celebrate the Frito-Lay distribution center under construction.
Terry Britton, vice president of the board, thanked the Nelson Group for choosing Highland County and the Leesburg Industrial Park for the facility. He said he believes the building will be 18,000 sq. ft., costs about $1.2 million and will bring approximately 14 permanent jobs to the area.
“So that’s a great thing for the county and for the area here in Leesburg. I want to thank the other two commissioners for all their help … We got the call about late August, first of September, of last year and Tom Frederickson was the gentleman that gave us a call and said we were interested in the Leesburg Park and things started turning from there,” he said. “I want to thank Kevin Zimmerman and CIC (Community Improvement Corporation) for all the work that they’ve done because we know we can’t do negotiating on this kind of a job, so CIC took care of all that work with the CIC for us.”
Jeff Duncan, president of the board, said the company reached out to them looking for a location for their distribution center. He also said he thinks the facility will most likely be up and ready to go by late fall or early winter. He highlighted that the weather has been a factor and that because of the rain, the building is a bit behind schedule.
Duncan also said that the building of the distribution center is exciting for the area because someone recognized the site and came to them to talk about it. He said the industrial park has everything the state required for an industrial site like water, WiFi and electricity and that the village has been good in helping meet all those requirements.
Leesburg Mayor Shawn C. Priest was at the event and commented on the building and how it feels for Leesburg to be its home.
“On behalf of the council, and the citizens of Leesburg, I want to thank you all for this,” Priest said. “It means a lot. We think this is the first domino and hopefully, in 10 years’ time, we’re going to see lots of buildings and lots of jobs, and we really appreciate all your help, and everybody’s help.
“It was a team effort, it taken care of, so we’re just really pleased to be here and thank you for everything you’ve done and everything that you’re going to continue to do for us. We appreciate it.”
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
