The Northern Virginia Daily

Article date: June 10, 2006

 Town-county panel seeks high-end jobs

By Charlotte J. Eller

Local economic development officials will focus on attracting business with high-paying jobs over the next two years so commuters will have a chance to find work closer to home.

Paul Carroll, executive director of the Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority, told the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the new approach differs from the period when officials tried to attract major warehousing, distribution and industrial manufacturing after the 1989 closure of the Avtex Fibers plant, at the time the community’s largest employer.

“At that time, the private sector wasn’t in a position to work at recruiting major employment centers,” he said.  “But we don’t need to do this any longer as an EDA.  Our goal is to recruit high-paying jobs with good benefits to help those who are commuting into the Northern Virginia-D.C. market.”

“But our belief is that the private sector is not only growing, it is able to take over some of those other areas that the EDA has done traditionally,” he said.

To do that, the EDA board has developed a strategic new document, Vision 2020, during numerous meetings over the past months containing recommendations, he said.

“At this point, we have [the plan] going out to some local firms to test the best practices so we can find out what some goals the EDA should play based on current demographics and the regional and global markets.” he said.

Carroll hopes to have the report back in the early fall, when the DA plans to share it with the county and the town as a resource on how to move forward he said.

The EDA also is essentially working with two large parcels, a business park at the Royal Phoenix site– also known as the Avtex Fibers Superfund site– and the Happy Creek Industrial Park, he said.

At Royal Phoenix, the EDA has made substantial progress toward promoting its sale to a developer, he said.

Since January, the proposed developer has met with U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va, plus the new executive director of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, suggested holding an open house with the idea of attracting a government agency to lease a site at the location, he said.

“We worked with Mr. Wolf’s office and held an open house on site.  It was well attended,” Carroll said.  “The feedback we received from the GSA [General Services Administration] and several other agencies was very positive.”

The U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security also attended.

Now the EDA’s trying to get the Department of Agriculture and federal transportation officials to visit the site, Carroll said.