Branding Bluestone: Officials seek vision for park
By CHARLES OWENS
Bluefield Daily
Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, Va. — As they
prepare for a long-awaited start of construction, Tazewell
County officials also are taking steps
to brand the planned Bluestone Regional Business and Technology Park.
The first phase of the technology park project is scheduled to be advertised
for construction in December, according to Tazewell County Administrator Jim
Spencer. The phase one construction will include water, sewer and road
infrastructure at the 680-acre site near Bluefield,
Va.
In the meantime, officials are working to develop a brand promise for the
Bluestone.
A branding workshop was held last week. Ginger Branton, director of the
Richlands Area Chamber of Commerce, was one of several county officials to
attend the branding workshop.
“Apparently, the county had brought in a cross-section of people for a brainstorming
session,” Branton said. “I think they are going to do a series of these things.
Then they are going to compile the document on what the vision of the Bluestone
actually is.”
Branton said benefits of the technology park discussed during the branding
session include its close proximity to the U.S. Route 460 corridor, the support
expressed for the project by both West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and Virginia
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, and the fact that Southwest
Virginia enjoys a low crime rate and is free from natural
disasters.
The phase one construction — originally scheduled to begin in March — was
delayed for months following the discovery of a 228-year-old farmhouse at the
site and chert, which is chips of rock and flint that are considered evidence
of a pre-contact settlement
The technology park, which is being developed near Bluefield, Va., proposes to
incorporate a workforce training center, offices, hotels and a conference
center, retail stores, residential units and a nine-hole golf course — all within
a single development.
