If you didn’t know any better, you may mistake it for a landfill. A lone excavator was pushing soil around the perimeter of a 100-acre dirt pad last week, but there were no trash trucks or seagulls scavenging overhead.
The property may not look like much now, Lee Lawson said, but before, the only way the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance (BCEDA) could visualize the location of a prospective building pad at the South Alabama Mega Site for potential buyers was by marking the corners with old billboard skins and flying clients overhead.
“Originally there were a lot of valleys and trenches out there; there was a ton of roll on the topography,” he said. “We have a building pad now for somebody when they come in they don’t have to stretch to envision where their facility would go or where they would lay out. It saves the tenant time and cost.”
Lawson and BCEDA obtained the title to the 3,000-acre Mega Site from the Baldwin County Commission 13 months ago as part of a deal to secure a $7 million Growing Alabama Tax Credit to allow BCEDA to make improvements to the site’s infrastructure.
Since, a new access road has been constructed to the building pad, which Lawson said is “90 percent complete.” In recent weeks, crews have shifted focus to a 1.5-mile rail spur to connect the building pad to a CSX mainline south of the property. Lawson said they expect to finish the project by the end of the year and return the property to the commission.
The commission bought the property in 2012 for $32 million in hopes of attracting advanced manufacturing or technology to the site. Lawson said he’s had “55 to 60 real inquiries” on the property over the past eight years, even getting to final negotiations with one client before they pulled out due to a business case.
“We can put a lot of time, effort and energy into a project that can span six to eight months and then we finish second. And you don’t get to celebrate second place,” he said.
While some markets have faced an economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lawson said there has been some encouraging news statewide and the Mega Site continues to attract attention.
“AM/MS is building a $500 million arc furnace [in Calvert], which will allow them to bring that supply chain here and have more control and cost savings out of it,” he noted. “You’re seeing some industries benefit from the current climate and some trying to position for the future. We’ve been positioning ourselves to be in the middle of those conversations. While Wall Street seems very positive, a lot of the companies we’re talking to are analyzing where they are from a new greenfield position.”
Back in Baldwin County, grocer ALDI announced a $100 million capital investment in a distribution center and regional headquarters outside of Loxley in July. In Huntsville earlier this month, Mazda-Toyota announced an $830 million expansion of its manufacturing operation there. Lawson said the Mega Site was a finalist for that project, which like the Mercedes plant in Tuscaloosa County, “continues to invest in itself … That’s the goal here.”
Lawson said the Baldwin County Commission has passed on projects involving chemical manufacturing or “heavy processing,” because it is looking for an anchor tenant that can “set the tone” for the entire site.
“The majority of projects come through site consultants or directly through company contacts,” he said. “But sometimes we have been analyzed and looked at before we ever knew we were being looked at. Sometimes we’re making front-end contacts at companies and building relationships that way. We’ve said no to some industry sectors because that’s not what we’re looking for, although we’ve had opportunities. We’ve been super close on some really great projects and jobs and investment. It has given the commission confidence that we’re going to get there and we’re doing the right thing by continuing to compete for the right projects.”
No fill dirt was imported to the site as part of the enhancements, Lawson said, but rather it was excavated from the rail bed and used to construct the building pad. Rail or pavement won’t be laid yet because then it has to be maintained.
Courtesy of BCEDA | Land has been cleared for a 1.5-mile rail spur (bottom) ending at a 100-acre building pad (top) at the South Alabama Mega Site north of Bay Minette.
Electricity on the site is provided by Alabama Power and Baldwin EMC, while North Baldwin Utilities provides water, sewer and natural gas. Lawson said several providers offer “tremendous fiber assets” along State Highway 287 as well.
“This wasn’t some dartboard where the folks who decided to buy the property threw a dart at this,” he said. “There are some lessons we’ve learned through coming very close to winning some very big projects and we have active projects we’re competing on now. This virtual world we’re now living in has paid huge dividends. We’ve been able to do Zoom presentations and follow up with photography, visuals, everything we have that shows clients the amount of work we’ve done and our level of preparedness.”
A separate access to the property — the proposed Baldwin Beach Express II extension — will be on the ballot in November. Lawmakers have left it up to voters to consider whether the $200 million, 24-mile-long project will be paid for with a toll authority along the new roadway.
“Now that we’ve defined the target area, we’ve removed a year’s worth of work here and $7.5 million in site preparation costs,” Lawson said.
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