The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development awarded a $1 million grant to Livingston Wednesday for the town’s Industrial Park Project.
Consulting Engineer Ray Evans Evans said the grant will allow Livingston to build an industrial building pad of at least 100,000 square feet and a 100-vehicle parking lot adjacent to the pad. Funds will also extend utilities to the site making it pad-ready.
“We need every advantage that we can to be competitive with other communities in the state when it comes to industrial development,” Evans said. “The further along you are in site preparation, the better your chances are of being selected by an industry to come to your community.”
Evans said it may take some time before Livingston can begin working on the site.
“Step one is getting the contract in place with the state, and it will probably be a two-month process,” Evans said. “We have already selected an engineering firm to do the design, but that’s probably a six-month process as well. We then have to get the state’s concurrence with that design to proceed forward with going out for bid.”
Depending on the time of year and the weather, Evans said the construction will probably take eight months to complete. Evans said it may be late 2026 or early 2027 before the site is completed.
Evans said the majority of the work will be grading the site. Evans said he was surprised to receive $1 million, as Livingston actually applied for less funding.
“The staff at Economic Community Development and their consultants, and their friends at TVA Economic Community Development thought this project was important enough for the region that they gave us a little extra money, and we’ve talked about doing some things beyond what we had originally intended,” Evans said. “We don’t have those sorted out yet, but we are trying to sort through what we might do extra, other than what we initially intended.”
Evans said the site is the only Industrial Site in Overton County. Livingston was one of six municipalities to receive the grant. Evans said Livingston began preliminary work to apply for the grant over two years ago.