Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
KELLY VIRELLAThe funds will be used to build an access road for Topline Hylift, an auto parts maker that ll build a new plant in the park and create 150 new jobs at a wage higher than the county average.
SPRING HILL - The fledgling business park east of Hernando County Airport got a boost this month when the airport received a $400,000 state grant to build a new road and drainage system.
The quarter-mile road will ferry traffic inside the 56-acre Airport RailPark to U.S. 41, which borders the park on the east.
The airport, which owns the park, won the grant from the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development.
The grant is designed to help solve the transit problems of companies that agree to create or retain jobs in target industries, said Kim Prunty, representative of Enterprise Florida, the tax-funded nonprofit that screens applications for OTTED.
The airport requested the access road for Topline Hylift Inc., a Michigan auto parts manufacturer planning to lease 10 acres in the business park to build a plant. The public road will begin at Topline and go south to Runway Drive, which connects to U.S. 41.
Though the company's 10-acre lot fronts U.S. 41, airport director Don Silvernell said the access road will make it easier for the company to secure its site with a gate.
In exchange for the road, Topline is promising to hire 150 people at wages no less than $12.99 per hour, which is 115 percent of the county's full-time average annual wage of $11.30, said Mike McHugh, director of the Office of Business Development.
When the company opens early next year, it will be the second largest manufacturer in Hernando County, behind Sparton Electronics, which has 325 employees, McHugh said. Topline also is planning to spend $5-million to construct and equip the plant, he said.
The grant comes on top of about $1-million in incentives the county and state offered Topline to persuade the company to move here. The incentives were the largest offered to a Hernando County business in more than a decade, since Wal-Mart got about $2-million when it built its distribution center on the county's east side.
"Topline is providing a number of good paying jobs to the county and a number of improvements to the site," Silvernell said. "It's exciting to see things taking off in there."
The road also may help the airport lure other businesses to the $2.7-million RailPark, a key piece of the county's economic development plan. By October, the airport plans to add a rail line connecting businesses inside the park with CSX trunk rail lines leading to the Port of Tampa, where companies could ship goods.
The airport would offer long-term leases at fair market value with the businesses. Revenue from the leases would benefit the airport, which does not get any local tax money, Silvernell said.
So far four businesses are leasing or planning to lease a total of 34 acres in the park. But with the exception of 84 Lumber, a Pennsylvania building supply retailer that is constructing a store at the park, the park is still a thicket of pine trees.
Twenty-two acres of the park remain available for lease and the airport still needs to raise money to pay for the $1.2-million rail line, Silvernell said. A grant that it won two years ago only covers half.
Laying the tracks at the RailPark hadn't been a big priority for the airport because the park was still empty, Silvernell said.
But Topline broke ground on its site last week and Tuesday had payloaders clearing trees. Construction of the new road is set to end by October.
"Initially there was a lot of skepticism when the idea for this RailPark emerged," he said. "People said why don't you wait until you've got some firm tenants in there. Well, boom - we got it."
- Kelly Virella can be reached at 352 848-1434. Send e-mail to kvirella@sptimes.com