Last week’s meeting between members of the Huntington Municipal Development Authority and HADCO sparked renewed interest in the vision and marketing of KineticPark, a long-planned business and technology park.
A. Michael Perry has agreed to host a roundtable discussion on KineticPark in the near future at Heritage Farm Village and Museum, said Tom Bell, executive director of HMDA, which owns the 96-acre KineticPark. Bell said he hopes the discussion includes representatives of HMDA, HADCO, Marshall University, Marshall Community and Technical College and the health care community.
HADCO President Marc A. Sprouse said HADCO wants to market KineticPark and encourages input from HMDA and the community. "We need to first come up with a plan and a marketing strategy," he said. "I think out of those discussions, we will develop something concrete."
In the meantime, HMDA and HADCO should review past plans for KineticPark and determine what can be salvaged and what needs to be scrapped, Sprouse said. The development groups also should revisit initial plans for the Velocity Center to see if a similar idea can be molded from that concept, he said. Sprouse said he thinks the Velocity Center concept is still viable, because it's essentially an extension of HADCO's successful shell building program. (Excerpt from the Herald-Dispatch, Oct. 3, 2009.)
