GATE CITY — Scott County officials say they expect construction of a multimillion-dollar expansion of the Crooked Road Technology Center in Duffield to be finished by late March.
The project’s completion had originally been scheduled for the end of February, but Scott County Economic Development Authority Executive Director John Kilgore said last-minute change orders forced the delay.
“Unfortunately, there have been a couple of change orders,” Kilgore said. “It will not be completed until the last week of March, unless there is another change order.”
The 33,000-square-foot wing roughly doubles the size of the multi-tenant facility and is designed to support up to 250 technology-based jobs.
The tech center’s second wing was originally projected to cost around $4.3 million, and was built largely with funding from the Virginia Tobacco Commission and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration that was announced in Sept. 2010.
Kilgore said he expects the project to come in under budget once the final cost figures are calculated.
Kilgore said the building’s design and infrastructure should be attractive to prospective businesses and help provide increased job opportunities for the area.
“One of the key factors today for companies is speed, and the building provides flexible opportunities for the finished and unfinished space,” Kilgore said. “The Crooked Road Tech Center, which has no debt for the county, will hopefully provide opportunities for the county and the region for many years.”
The original phase of the Crooked Road Tech Center, which houses the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission Offices and Amedisys Home Health, was completed in early 2010.
The 39,000-square-foot original facility cost $5.9 million to construct. That funding, which included a $2.3 million allocation from the Tobacco Commission, was announced in 2008.