Originally appeared in The News-Enterprise | Sept. 10, 2024

The Elizabethtown-Hardin County Industrial Foundation was quickly running out of land but a $6.5 million purchase has remedied the problem.

The foundation purchased approximately 140 acres along Gaither Station Road in Hardin County last week to serve as a new industrial park, foundation President and COO Andy Games said.

“So the T.J. Patterson (Industrial Park) has two 20-acre lots left,” Games said. “So that’s all the land we had left. So we acquired 40 acres out by the (Western Kentucky) Parkway, which joins this new land. We purchased that about two years ago.”

The deal not only includes the acreage, of a 29.202-acre parcel and a 139.639-acre parcel, off Gaither Station Road, but it also includes the Hazel Hill house included and the Niceley Home Furnishings building at 131 W. Dixie Ave. in downtown Elizabethtown.

The deal was finalized Sept. 3 and sold by Nelle Nicely Johnson, the sole heir of Gillan Niceley Jr., and Anthony Johnson, her husband.

“It’s probably been 10 months of talking, but Mrs. Nelle Nicely Johnson, the sole heir, we met with her for the first time in January or February of this year,” Games said. “It was a great working relationship for those nine months. We greatly appreciate her and her husband, Anthony.”

The two parcels on Gaither Station Road are divided by the road and the CSX Railroad.

The corner 40-acre property at Ring Road and the parkway combines for a total of 180 contiguous acres along that interstate corridor for a to-be-named industrial park.

“We are just in the beginning stages of acquiring it and trying to get some things laid out as far as utilities things like that to work alongside the city,” Games said.

Games said the Johnsons, who live in Louisville, began the process for annexing the property into the city, but the petition has yet to come before city council for approval.

In the meantime, the foundation’s board will be tasked with devising a master plan for the property to determine utilities, roads, size of lots and other infrastructure needs, Games said.

“We’re master planning it,” Games said. “When we get our master plan done, we’ll start marketing it, but it would be ground we would send to the Cabinet of Economic Development to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got more ground, finally,’ ” Games said. “They’ve been eagerly awaiting and we’ve been in constant contact with them.”

While Games said he doesn’t have a waiting list per se, he is aware of several projects looking for sites.

“Once we get it semi-ready — because most of these projects are always looking for something that’s site-ready, build-ready — we want to make sure everything in place or that we can turn it around have it ready to go for someone who wants to do something here,” Games said.

The Hazel Hill house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, gaining approval Oct. 5, 1988.

The original building was a five-bay, one-and-one-half-story central passage plan residence, or a home built with two rooms on either side of the entrance often called a Georgian plan, constructed in 1832, according to its filing Aug. 26, 1988, in the Historic Resources of Hardin County. Another two-story wing was constructed in 1865.

“The house was originally one of the earliest brick structures in this section of the county,” the county document reads. “… The house is a good example of how early buildings were expanded and enlarged to reflect changes in styles. No significant alterations have occurred to the home since this period and the porch on the north facade and pocket doors on the south facade are unique features in the county. The house was built by Judge Greenberry Gaither, who was a prominent farmer and politician of Hardin County.”

Games said the foundation’s priority will be to address the site’s infrastructure needs before handling the home and the 2.75 acres surrounding it.

“It’s nothing that’s pressing for us,” Games said. “It’s sitting on 110 acres. There’s a lot of other stuff that needs to go on around it.

“It’s rough,” Games added. “We haven’t had anybody look at it to tell us anything structurally, but it is rough. We went through it a couple times with Mrs. Niceley Johnson and you can drive by and see that it has age on it. You know how things get when they get closed up, they get a little rough.”

As far as the downtown property is concerned, Games said Niceley Johnson wanted the properties sold in one package, which the foundation paid $2 million up front and the balance is to be paid by Jan. 27, 2025, according to the property transfer.

“Her ask to us was, if I want to deal with you guys, I would like you to buy everything,” Games said. “She trusted us and we met as a board because we’re not in the real estate business so that was new, but our board was in agreement to go ahead and purchase it.”

The downtown property contains the home furnishings store, but also land that goes 210 feet to the alley behind it and a white cinder-block building that sits off the alley.

“It’s exciting because it’s another piece of downtown that will be revitalized by someone,” Games said.

The building also is part of the historic downtown district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and has a placard denoting the fact.

Games said he is unsure how the sale will proceed as the board has yet to meet since the purchase, but said he already has fielded questions from interested parties.

“It will be interesting to see how that goes,” Games said. “The building is in pretty decent shape. We have walked through it several times. It is dated, … but structural, I believe it’s in really good shape. It’s a big lot and it has quite of bit of parking potentially in the back.”

Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said the Niceley Home Furnishings building has been a property the city identified several years ago as having potential for bigger and better purposes.

“The property will immediately be available for proposals for potential purchasers,” Gregory said. “We are extremely excited to see what that historic building can once again become in the heart of our city.”

With the sale of the building and development of the property, Games said it is just another piece of the puzzle of economic activity in the community.

“We’re seeing lots of different projects. … It’s exciting to have more ground, it’s exciting to have something else to market, and it will be exciting to see how that piece of ground evolves and shows out.”