State certification means 110-acre Horizon Center site is ready for development

Tennessee officials have identified 110 cleared acres in Horizon Center as one of the first sites in the state to be named a certified site, meaning the property has met certain rigorous standards and is ready for development.

It’s now the second certified site in Horizon Center, a business park on State Route 95 in west Oak Ridge.

The 110-acre site has been designated as a Select Tennessee Certified Site by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.

TECD Commissioner Bill Hagerty told the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership that it “is a tremendous achievement for your community and indicative of significant hard work and preparation.

“The steps you have taken to ensure your site is a premier location for site selectors and industrial prospects will position your community for success,” Hagerty said.

The department launched the  Select Tennessee Certified Sites Program in June 2012. It assesses, certifies and promotes “vetted” sites for relocations and expansions, the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership said in a Wednesday press release. ECD hired two site consulting firms to create a rigorous set of benchmarks that sites must meet in order to qualify as “certified.”

The certification helps companies reduce risk in the site selection process, said Kim Denton, president and chief executive officer of the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership.

“The process took 10 months from the initial application to the official notification with well over 120 documents submitted related to the site,” said Oak Ridge Economic Partnership Project Manager Kathy Barber.

The press release said Select Tennessee Sites will be featured on a new website www.selecttennessee.com, giving site selectors, corporate real estate executives, and companies the confidence that the sites have met consistent and rigorous standards and are ready for development.

“This elite certification will give Oak Ridge a distinct advantage over the competition when recruiting companies to Oak Ridge,” Denton said. “Special thanks to ECD, Austin Consulting, the Industrial Development Board, and the City of Oak Ridge for their efforts in helping us achieve this certification.”

In May, the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership announced that the Tennessee Valley Authority had identified a separate 28-acre site at Horizon Center as a potential data center site. That property is just southwest of the Select Tennessee Certified Site at the back side of Horizon Center.

“We are very excited about Oak Ridge now having two separate certified sites, both in Horizon Center,” Denton said. “The Select Tennessee Certified Site designation further validates our efforts to make sure that Oak Ridge is prepared and open for business as the economy begins to prosper.”