If having empty buildings and speculative structures to show industrial prospects is important, why does Rowan County’s proposed budget for 2015-16 lack any mention of such projects?

For good reason, according to Greg Edds, chairman of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners. Edds says he and others want a private developer to fill that need.

“Partnering with private sector developers is our current focus since private dollars can more efficiently address private sector needs,” Edds said in an email to the Post. “This will leave high-demand public dollars more available to address critical local public funding issues.”

The initiative’s omission from the budget does not signal a lack of commitment, Edds said. Making sure Rowan has spec buildings available “is our top economic development priority right now.”

Here are some examples of how spec buildings have been handled at other times and in other places:

• All private: In Cabarrus County, the Silverman Group built the huge structure that attracted Amazon to open a warehouse there last year. Amazon occupies 220,000 square feet in a 400,000-square-foot facility in the Concord Airport Business Park. The Silverman Group owns the business park and is erecting another shell building across from Amazon.

• County land, privately funded building: When Rowan County established the Summit Corporate Park off Julian Road in 1996, it partnered on the first spec structure, built on county land by Atlantic American Properties. The 100,000-square-foot building remained vacant for nearly 10 years. In 2005, it sold for $1.4 million to E&B Brown Enterprises to house IMS Fabrication, which makes industrial autoclaves. Rowan had originally set the land’s price at $29,100 per acre; as an economic incentive, commissioners dropped it to $12,000 per acre.

• Publicly funded building sold to a private developer: In Cleveland County, a partnership between the city of Shelby and the county led to the development of an industrial park with a pre-certified facility. The county and city sold the building at a profit to a developer, a company moved in, and another facility was built using profits from the sale of the first one. A second company has built its own facility in the park.

The first example, with a private developer taking all the risk — and reward — would be everyone’s first choice. Keep your fingers crossed. Rowan has a lot to offer in terms of workforce, natural resources and location. Maybe soon it will have privately owned spec buildings to offer as well.