Business View Magazine | July 2020

201 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2020 MADI SONV I LLE , KENTUCKY are always looking to expand our industrial base. We’re located in one of the heartlands of Kentucky - you can get anywhere you want to go in a day’s drive. We are close to Atlanta, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Louisville. We’ve got quite a bit of logistics capabilities here in the community. Interstate-69, which cuts right through the heart of our City has just been designated in the past few years, and that’s been a big benefit to Madisonville.” The City also boasts a historic district concentrated around the intersection of Center and Main Streets. In all, it’s an 11-acre commercial site that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. “Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen a big uptick and a lot of upgrades to our downtown area,” says Cotton. “We have downtown living, and we’ve just approved a new ordinance to allow for another development in that area with a mixed- use neighborhood district. It will have retail and residential, as well as cottages that are going to be scattered throughout the property - all within walking distance. This will actually be next door to what’s called the Innovation Station. The Innovation Station is a really neat facility here in Madisonville. It was originally a train station that has been converted into a very low-cost, co-working office space where our Economic Development is housed. The City was gifted this building, and we’ve poured about $750,000 worth of upgrades to it. You can rent that space for as little as $10 per month, up to $50, depending on how much space you need. It provides you with everything from telephone and internet services to office supplies.” Construction is well underway on an exciting venture in the same area called the Maker’s Space. The state’s Economic Development arm offered the City of Madisonville a grant to develop this incredible facility, similar to Innovation Station, in that it will, for a monthly fee, rent out the tools necessary for hobbies like woodworking, textiles, 3-D printing,