The Gadsden-Etowah Industrial Development Authority’s scorecard for 2012 includes seven new or existing industries that eventually will result in about 400 additional jobs, according to Executive Director Mike McCain.
McCain said the industries represent investments totaling about $30 million.
“There’s a lot of communities that would like to have these numbers,” he said.
“To have seven projects investing more than $30 million and creating about 400 jobs in Gadsden during the recession is great progress. However, it is not as great as we would like.”
Most of the new jobs will become available in 2013, McCain said. They will include announced expansions by the NARMCO Group, Decatur Plastic Products, Southern Cold Storage, Inteva Products and Gadsden Fabrication, and two new industries that did not have formal announcements.
Pacific Trading purchased a 17-acre parcel in the Gadsden Industrial Complex this fall and has begun grading the site for a $2.5 million metal processing facility. McCain said the facility will have 30 employees.
He said a manufacturing company has signed a long-term lease agreement on existing industrial space in Gadsden that will create more than 100 jobs in the next six months, and more than 100 additional jobs by the end of 2013. The firm — for competitive reasons, according to McCain — did not want to release details.
“They just don’t want their competitors to know what they’re doing right now,” he said, adding that a formal announcement is expected later.
The firm has not yet requested any incentives such as tax abatements from the city of Gadsden, which would be done in a public meeting. McCain said tax abatements for equipment would have to be applied for prior to it being delivered.
The NARMCO Group is modifying the former Rigid Building Systems building in the Airport Industrial Park for an $18 million automotive stamping operation that initially will employ 30, McCain said. Company officials also made a decision to establish a separate processing line in the facility, which will add additional jobs.
McCain said Decatur Plastic Products purchased the former Progressive Plastics/Wimbish Enterprises building in the Gadsden Commerce Center. It will house a $1 million plastic injection molding operation that will create 50 jobs. Inteva Products has a $9 million expansion under way that will add a new product line and 50 employees.
A $5 million expansion at Southern Cold Storage added five jobs, McCain said, and a $550,000 expansion at Gadsden Fabrication will add 10 jobs.
By Andy Powell
Times Staff Writer