By Brenna R. Kelly and Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BURLINGTON - A $50 million FedEx Ground hub could be headed to the Enterprise V Industrial Park on Toebben Drive in Boone County.

A Boone County Fiscal Court vote Tuesday approved an industrial revenue bond proposal that takes the county's incentive packagefor the regional hub closer to the top of the heap.

Boone County is competing with West Chester in Butler County and a site in Indianapolis for the facility, which is expected to employ 800 regular workers with up to 1,400 at seasonal peaks.

Greg Shumate, the local attorney representing FedEx Ground, said Tuesday the Boone County site being considered is the 100 acres next to Georgia Pacific. Officials had been keeping the location under wraps, saying only that FedEx was eyeing a 350,000-square-foot distribution center in unincorporated Boone County.

The full details of the bond package will be presented on Thursday to the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority.

FedEx Ground received preliminary approval last year for $1.1 million in state tax incentives from Kentucky, officials with the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development said in December.

Butler County officials said Tuesday they would not be surprised if the facility located in Northern Kentucky because Kentucky can offer better incentives than Ohio. And the Boone County site is closer to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, West Chester Trustee Catherine Stoker pointed out.

"We would have seen FedEx out here sniffing more and trying to work deals if they were seriously interested," Stoker said.

"We thought Kentucky pretty much had a lock on this. While we would certainly welcome having FedEx establish this important regional center in West Chester, we would be pleased to see it located anywhere in the Greater Cincinnati area," she said.

E-mail bkelly@enquirer.com or jedwards@enquirer.com