The Golden Triangle Development LINK and the Tennessee Valley Authority have officially unveiled a new 1,144 acre megasite.
LINK representatives, along with Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Bill Johnson, officially announced the news Friday morning at the Courtyard Marriott in Columbus. TVA has certified the megasite.
The Infinity Megasite, located west of GTR Regional Airport, is the newest addition to the Golden Triangle Industrial Aerospace Park. The megasite is the third in Lowndes County, which is also home to the Lowndes County Megasite (Steel Dynamic, Inc.) and the Crossroads Megasite (PACCAR).
Clay County is home to another LINK-developed megasite — the Prairie Belt Powersite, which hosts Yokohama.
LINK Chief Executive Officer Joe Max Higgins said the site is a “by God gem” and is the best the LINK has developed.
A megasite, in economic development, is a large parcel of land designed to accommodate industrial production. Megasites must have at least 1,000 acres and are typically developed with suitable infrastructure and transportation access to attract businesses.
The Infinity Megasite comes with access to 100 megawatts of electricity, features 2 million gallons of elevated tank storage for water with a 7.2 million gallons per day pumping capacity. It has waste water treatment capacity of 1.2 million gallons a day with expansion funded to 3.2 million gallons a day.
“It’s the best bargain out there,” Higgins said.
Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders recalled riding in the area that would become the Industrial Park with Higgins several years ago. He said even his wildest dreams at the time couldn’t match what’s actually happened in the years since.
“People don’t realize how big this is in the world community of economic development,” Sanders said. “We’ve got one of the few sites that meets all of the criteria for anybody. It’s been a lot hard work to put it together.”
Lindsey Myers, a senior consultant for the McCallum Sweeny firm, said she began working on the certification process with the LINK in September 2015. She said the process, which normally takes about two years, was finished in nine months, and she credited the LINK for the success.
Now, she said, the LINK must market the site to attract a tenant.
“Companies are not willing to wait for a community to find an appropriate site and determine its suitability for development,” Myers said. “That due diligence needs to be completed in advance of a prospect visit, and the LINK team has a property in the Infinity Megasite that has achieved certification and is ready for the team to go out and market with a wealth of information.”
An occupant for the site has not yet been announced, though Higgins indicated the LINK is talking with a company for a potential project at the site.
“What starts today is the marketing of that site,” Higgins said. “We’ll start marketing that Monday as a certified megasite. We’ve already got tenants looking at it. We’ll start repping it and marketing it and trying to get somebody to call it home.”
TVA Bill CEO Bill Johnson said he expects the Infinity Megasite will be developed “fairly quickly.”
Megasite program
TVA began the megasite program in March 2004 in response to a growing need for large industrial properties for automotive manufacturing and other industrial facilities in its coverage area. The program ceased, but has recently restarted with the certification earlier this summer of a megasite in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as the Infinity Megasite.
“This site happened because your community demanded it, not because we were pushing it,” Johnson said. “So we responded to what the community wanted, which is our job.”
There are nine certified megasites in TVA’s 80,000 square mile footprint, which includes portions of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, a third of which are in Lowndes County.
“The megasite program has been most successful here in Mississippi,” Johnson said. “We have them all over and they’ve all been good, but you have a lot of them here.
“Working with the people in this region has just been outstanding,” he added. “They’re after the same thing we are — let’s improve people’s quality of life. Let’s get them a chance to go to work. We see this eye-to-eye, and we’re glad to be a part of it.”
Johnson noted that benefits from prior sites didn’t stop with only the companies that moved into a community. He also said thousands of “spin-off” jobs have sprung up thanks to the creation of businesses that feed into the larger development at the megasite.
Higgins said megasites have a tremendous regional reach.
“This is not a Columbus thing,” he said. “This is not a Lowndes County thing. This is not a Golden Triangle thing. The (workforce for) companies that are located at that airport come from two states and 35 counties. They’re coming from counties in Alabama that you probably don’t even know the name of. They’re coming from north Mississippi, up past Tupelo, and coming here to work.”
Previous successes
Megasites in the Golden Triangle have a history of finding occupants quickly.
The Lowndes County Megasite was certified in August 2004. In March 2005, the Legislature approved a deal for SeverCorr to open the former Severstal steel mill on the site. Steel Dynamics Inc. purchased the mill in September 2014. The plant, a $1.8 billion investment, created about 650 jobs. SDI broke ground on a $100 million expansion, which should create about 40 new jobs, earlier this year.
The Crossroads Megasite was certified in April 2006. The Mississippi Legislature approved a deal to let PACCAR locate on the site a year later.
The $700 million project created 520 jobs.
The Prairie Belt Powersite, which the LINK created outside of the TVA megasite program, was completed in October 2012. Legislators approved Yokohama Tire Corporation moving to the site in April 2013.
The $500 million project is expected to create 500 jobs. Yokohama has plans for three additional $300 million phases that could create up to 500 jobs per phase.
Investment/job numbers
■ SEVERCORR (bought out by SDI in 2014): $1.8 billion investment/650 jobs
■ PACCAR: $700 million investment/520 jobs
■ YOKOHAMA: $500 million investment/500 jobs
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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