SOUTH POINT — This time they’re counting on 13 as a lucky number. That’s how many gold shovels were standing at attention Tuesday at noon just before the ground breaking of the latest shell building at The Point industrial park in South Point.

Among the 13 turning over the first dirt for the latest development at the park were the Lawrence County Commissioners, members of the Lawrence Economic Development Corp. and Don Hadsell of Hadsell Development Corp. of Scioto County.

But they were really there because of Hadsell’s desire to invest in The Point and the county, an investment that will hit the $1.2 to $1.5 million mark.

“I believe in the future. I’m banking on this county,” the developer said before the ceremony that’s the first step in the construction by Hadsell of a 50,000-square-foot building with space for 10-20 ton overhead cranes and two 100-foot loading bays.

Bulldozers are expected at the site next week with the building to be up a few months later. Then the next step goes to the county.

“The LEDC will aggressively kick off a marketing campaign the first of August,” Dr. Bill Dingus, LEDC director, said. “We hope to have someone in prior to the snow flies.”

Hadsell is no stranger to the county. He’s already built three spec structures at The Point for the LEDC as well as numerous schools for the county, including the latest buildings at South Point and Ironton, remodeling projects at Dawson-Bryant and Symmes Valley and structures for the Chesapeake district.

But this time he’s building for himself with the goal of getting a new commercial face at the county’s industrial park.

“Our economy will come back,” Hadsell told the group of officials at the groundbreaking, which followed the semi annual LEDC trustees board meeting.

There Dingus told the board that the jobless figures released on Friday for the month of June show the county ranks third best in the state for low unemployment, duplicating its May performance. Then Lawrence only ranked below Delaware and Holmes as it did for June.

“Lawrence County is kind of holding its own,” Dingus said.