Green Failure

The Virginian-Pilot on June 16th reported on the Cape Charles Sustainable Technology Industrial Park, a $9.1 million facility in rural Cape Charles, Virginia (The full article can be found here). Like most "green" projects, it is an abject failure. After five years, the project has generated nine jobs. Nine.

"This thing has won all sorts of awards for being the best sustainable development park in the country," Whener said. Then, noting the lack of progress, he added: "I guess it must be the only one."

Further proof that economic development cannot be achieved by adding regulations and obligations for the sake of social engineering.

Will this slow down the Green's? Nah. They've already identified the problem. It's not that there are all sorts of regulations and restrictions on how potential tenants do business. The problem, it seems, is only that the facility is in the wrong location.

Question 1: If this green concept is so powerful, why does location matter?

Question 2: If these "green developers" are so smart they can create an entirely new business model under which an array of industries are expected to flourish, why are they too dim to take into account location as an element of success in the real estate business?