(NOTE: To view more information about Etowah County’s megasite development, go to http://www.gadsdenida.org/content.php?id_pages=56#. There are links to a 35-page report about the development and marketing of this property as a megasite, as well as a one-page summary of site development options.)
The commission has voted to move forward with the project as a megasite, but now must decide other ways to proceed and how to pay for the project.
Clem said the state has a well-refined methodology of calling on companies with potential interest in the site. He said they can move forward, but commissioners already know the project “inside and out.”
“It’s Sales 101,” he said. “If you’re going to call on a customer, you have to have the complete product to sell.”
Mike McCain, executive director of the Gadsden/Etowah Industrial Development Board, said it is the commission’s role in industrial development to have the flexibility to travel and sell Etowah County as a place to visit, live and work.
The commission has spent about $2.6 million on land, and roughly another 100 acres is needed for the property to be named a megasite to qualify for state development funds. An estimated $450,000 is needed to purchase the property.
The commission has a contract with the IDA to market the property. McCain previously said it will cost about $21 million to have the property designated as a megasite and market or sell it for development. About half that cost could be reimbursed or paid through state development funding.
Clem said Gadsden and Etowah County are very important to the state, and development all along the I-59 corridor is important.
“We want to be there to partner with you,” he said.
Statum said he was excited to hear what Clem told the commission and is excited to move forward with the megasite project.
“This could be great, not only for Etowah County but our surrounding counties,” he said, “and not only our surrounding counties, but the state of Alabama.”
“It’ll be a good, drivable surface, but no asphalt,” Keith Strickland, with Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood, said. “But there’s a tremendous cost savings by rebidding.”
Holmes Excavation submitted the low bid. The highest was $1.9 million.
Strickland said he has worked with Holmes Excavation. “I feel good about his ability to do the job and his ability to do the job well,” he said.
Now the property is 850 acres of pine trees. “That’s all (prospects) are going to see,” Ted Clem, director of business development with the Alabama Department of Commerce, said in a meeting Tuesday with the commission. He suggested cutting the trees and even making a section of the property pad-ready.
“You have to be able to visualize that property,” Clem said. “It has to have curb appeal.”
The commission has authorized someone to begin clearing the trees, but the process is going to take a while, Chairman Larry Payne said.
“In several months, it’s going to look like a place that something needs to be put on,” Payne said.
Clem said there are several things to consider to make the property marketable, but there must be a plan in place.
He said compiling details such as what it would take and how long it will take to get necessary infrastructure in place could be helpful.
“If you put it in a three-ring binder, it’s handy, but it’s not going to guarantee success if (the property) doesn’t fit the needs of the company,” Clem said.
He said the rail access is important, but it would be helpful to have an interstate exchange near the site as well. He said there is no funding available for the interstate exchange, but if a company such as Mercedes were to choose Etowah County, it might be a possibility.
The commission has voted to move forward with the project as a megasite, but now must decide other ways to proceed and how to pay for the project.
Clem said the state has a well-refined methodology of calling on companies with potential interest in the site. He said they can move forward, but commissioners already know the project “inside and out.”
“It’s Sales 101,” he said. “If you’re going to call on a customer, you have to have the complete product to sell.”
Mike McCain, executive director of the Gadsden/Etowah Industrial Development Board, said it is the commission’s role in industrial development to have the flexibility to travel and sell Etowah County as a place to visit, live and work.
The commission has spent about $2.6 million on land, and roughly another 100 acres is needed for the property to be named a megasite to qualify for state development funds. An estimated $450,000 is needed to purchase the property.
The commission has a contract with the IDA to market the property. McCain previously said it will cost about $21 million to have the property designated as a megasite and market or sell it for development. About half that cost could be reimbursed or paid through state development funding.
Clem said Gadsden and Etowah County are very important to the state, and development all along the I-59 corridor is important.
“We want to be there to partner with you,” he said.
Statum said he was excited to hear what Clem told the commission and is excited to move forward with the megasite project.
“This could be great, not only for Etowah County but our surrounding counties,” he said, “and not only our surrounding counties, but the state of Alabama.”
BY LISA SAVAGE
Times Staff Writer