HADCO's new president, Marc A. Sprouse, is the former president/CEO of Guaranty Bank. Sprouse is only the second president in HADCO's 17-year history, replacing Jerry McDonald who resigned in 2009, but Sprouse has been involved with HADCO from the start.
This year, HADCO also has a new chairman of the board, Dick Bolen, a partner with Huddleston Bolen, LLP. He's returning to the position after being HADCO's first board chairman in 1992.
Both hope that 2010 will bring a better economic outlook as HADCO works to recruit new businesses to the region and help existing businesses thrive.
"We're looking at significant new jobs for 2011, and we think Marc is going to provide the leadership necessary to accomplish that. I think 2010 promises to be a very good year for our region."
Sprouse, he said, is well-suited for the position. "I think Marc's got a tremendous knowledge of economic development," Bolen said. "He was involved in the founding of HADCO and has been an officer and member of the executive committee from the beginning. Really no one is more familiar with HADCO's activities than Marc Sprouse.
"And he has been a banker for more than 30 years, and that's a key ingredient in economic development," Bolen added. "(Attracting) new business and development of old business is closely related to the availability of financing. We know he's going to do a great job."
HADCO's economic development activities are focused on a variety of new and existing business prospects, and the construction for Alcon is proceeding at HADCO Business Park on WV Rte 2 near Greenbottom.
Alcon, an international company which makes intraocular lenses used in cataract surgery, is building a second Huntington manufacturing plant at the park, the first business to be located there. It's a $25 million investment that could bring 350 jobs in the next 15 years. It's expected to be up and running in 2011.
Work on that site is progressing nicely, Sprouse said. The access road to the business park is complete, as is the railroad crossing. A turning lane will be added along WV Rte 2 in the spring.
HADCO also purchased 55 additional adjacent acres for the business park, which brings the total site to more than 100 acres.
HADCO also has a $2.3 million shell building on that site that it's been recruiting to fill.
The sewer project at the business park will start soon, he said. A project of the Pea Ridge Public Sewer District and funded with the help of tax increment financing (TIF) from the Cabell County Commission, it will serve the industrial park as well as 100 residents in that area.
In the arena of biotechnology, HADCO is working with Marshall University in getting contacts to help occupy three new labs that will be included in a biotech incubator, housed in Marshall's new Forensic Science Center Addition.
"We're still trying to get that space finished out," he said. "We have some interested parties, when that is completed."
In the meantime, "We still have a strong base of teleservice jobs and will continue to work on those, and we still have a strong base of industrial/manufacturing jobs," he said.
He's looking forward to the development of the former Ames property at 5th Street Hill, which will be the new site for DirecTV. And KineticPark is a focus for HADCO as well, Sprouse said.
"We've re-established a relationship with HMDA (the Huntington Municipal Development Authority, which owns KineticPark), and we're looking forward to working with them on development of KineticPark," Sprouse said. "That project has been idle a long time. I've been pleased with the efforts HMDA has made, and in working with Tom Bell of the mayor's office."
