The 100,000-square-foot speculative building in Hopkinsville’s Commerce Park I is back on the market after a Texas firm withdrew its plans for a production facility that would have employed about 200 workers.
Elevate Windows and Doors “made the decision to forego plans for a previously announced project to locate a production facility in Christian County,” said Brandon Mattingly, a spokesman for the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, in an email Tuesday to Hoptown Chronicle.
The cabinet and Gov. Andy Beshear’s office had announced on Sept. 29 that Elevate Windows and Doors was locating in Hopkinsville and would invest $16 million in a facility and create 203 full-time jobs at the spec building.
The news release announcing the company’s plans remained on the cabinet’s website this week. Except for the response to this news outlet’s inquiry, state officials have not clarified the record to acknowledge that Elevate Windows and Doors is no longer pursuing a facility in Hopkinsville.
Carter Hendricks, executive director of the South Western Kentucky Economic Development Council, said his office learned early last week that the company based in Grand Prairie, Texas, decided against purchasing the spec building and 22 acres in Commerce Park I.
The company had a purchase agreement but had not yet closed on the deal.
Rising interest rates caused the company to withdraw its plans in Hopkinsville, said Hendricks. The higher cost of borrowing money affected the project in two ways — increasing Elevate’s cost of expansion while also diminishing the new housing market that would support the sale of windows and doors.
SWKEDC is again marketing the spec building. The facility’s strong points include its size and proximity to two interstate highways, said Hendricks. The area’s lower cost of living is also a selling point, he said.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
