The Coleman site is getting another financial boost.
This time, the funding will come from the Virginia Tobacco Commission to the amount of $2.33 million. The commission approved the money for the project during its meeting Thursday in Martinsville.
City officials hope to attract a large industry to the 158-acre site on Gypsum Road. The Danville Industrial Development Authority owns the property.
The money, in addition to $9 million announced for the site by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in August, will help pay to build an 80-acre graded pad and complete an access road and a graded area for the extension of rail to the site.
“Grading of this pad will significantly reduce the time for companies to begin operation at the site,” Corrie Bobe, director of economic development and tourism for Danville, told the Register & Bee on Friday. “This project will certainly enhance the attractiveness of this site.”
Danville City Council voted to pass a resolution supporting the Danville IDA’s plan to seek about $4 million in funding from the Virginia Tobacco Commission for the site in August.
But the commission’s program parameters for the grant were updated, which reduced the maximum amount of funding it could provide for the Coleman project to $1.5 million, Bobe said. The site will receive the new maximum, she said.
“We were fortunate they saw such value in the project, they approved the maximum value,” she said.
The commission provided another $833,000 for the Coleman project from a separate batch of money dedicated for Danville, for a total of $2.33 million, said City Manager Ken Larking.
Officials have estimated the grading project will cost about $17 million. With the tobacco commission’s latest approval, a total of $11.3 million in funding has been clinched for the project.
Due to the site’s undeveloped status, companies have declined bringing projects to the property in the past.
“This site offers utility and transportation infrastructure that is conducive to large-scale manufacturing processes,” Bobe told the Register & Bee in August. “However, it remains undeveloped and has lost a number of projects.”
Preparing the site for development will reduce a company’s risk and timeline to begin operations, she said.
In August, Youngkin announced the $9 million in state funding for the Coleman site. The grant award was part of $126 million in Virginia Business Ready Program development grants for 23 sites across the state.
As for other possible funding, officials expect to receive another $3 million from Danville Utilities for the project. Also, there is about $1 million available from the IDA, Larking said.
If officials get that additional $4 million for the project, that will bring total funding to about $15.3 million. Danville officials would find a way to fund the remainder of the $17 million with city money, Bobe said.
No physical work has started on the project.
“We need to complete engineering and design of the pad and apply for a permit through the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct the grading,” Bobe said.