A new energy center is coming to the Lonesome Pine Regional Business and Technology Park, according to the Bristol Herald Courier.

The Appalachia America Energy Research Center is under construction and has many community leaders excited about the possibilities it will bring to Wise. In addition to boosting the local economy, the energy center could provide career opportunities for UVA-Wise graduates and keep them in the region.

This type of economic news is important for homeowners because the addition of new businesses to the area will increase the tax base, which will keep property taxes down. Also, the creation of new jobs and a growing local economy while make the area more marketable to new residents, which will increase home values.

"On Thursday, the Lonesome Pine Regional Business and Technology Park was a construction site full of heavy equipment and populated by energized dignitaries.

But one day, UVA-Wise Chancellor David Prior said, 'this may be a Los Alamos, this may be an Oak Ridge. It may be a mini-Research Triangle.'
Prior, who leads the college that sits almost adjacent to the industrial park site, was among a dozen or so local, state and business officials participating in Thursday’s formal ground-breaking ceremony for a $7.7 million energy research center at Lonesome Pine.

Funded with grants and loans from the Virginia Tobacco Commission and the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority, the Appalachia America Energy Research Center is expected to energize the region’s economy. Local leaders also said the work expected at the center could lead the way for scientific breakthroughs of global significance."

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