The Golden Triangle Development LINK is working with Lowndes County leaders to develop a fifth megasite in the region, LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins said Thursday.
Speaking to Columbus Exchange Club at Lion Hills Center, Higgins told those in attendance the new megasite “Cinco” will take years to plan and execute.
A megasite is a large swath of land, usually more than 1,000 acres, dedicated to industrial developments for several companies to build and operate on. The megasite program is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, other megasites in the Golden Triangle are home to Yokohama, Paccar, Airbus and Steel Dynamics.
Higgins explained that early site selection is critical to garner major industry players like Aluminum Dynamics, which chose to locate an aluminum flat-roll mill at its last available site on 2,200 acres in west Lowndes County adjacent to Golden Triangle Regional Airport.
“We bought this last megasite 10 years ago,” Higgins said.” We were working on the water and sewer 11 years ago. But had we not bought that site and watered and sewered it, we might have lost to the other states and the other communities.
“The fact that we owned it, had water on it and sewer around it and the dead Indians and the bugs and bunnies were already done, that put us lightyears ahead of the other towns,” he added, referring to Native American artifact preservation and environmental studies required at industrial sites.
Higgins said he met with Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston about the idea of a fifth megasite earlier Thursday and agreed finding more land is important for future developments down the road.
“The aluminum mill took up the vast majority of (the Infinity Megasite) along with property that we had to acquire for that,” Hairston told The Dispatch. “And so for obvious reasons, we’ve got to look to the future here and see if there are opportunities to have more land and where that looks like and what that looks like.”
In the meantime, Higgins said the LINK is working to obtain a cost estimate for additional fire and rescue facilities near the ADI megasite.
LINK representatives Meryl Fisackerly and Betsy Young are also exploring the idea of a day care facility near the Golden Triangle Regional Airport, specifically for the children of employees at businesses located in that area.
The LINK also plans to focus most of its energies for the next three to five years on ensuring the success of ADI’s build-out and the addition of two more facilities the company hopes to build.
Those two other sites will include a production facility on 200 acres owned by the Lowndes County Development Authority just north of the company’s aluminum mill and a logistics center on about 90 acres at the Lowndes County Port Authority East Bank. Higgins would not disclose any further details about the two sites other than to say ADI representatives are still reviewing them.
ADI and LCDA signed a memorandum of understanding in 2022, which holds that land for the company until the end of 2024, but LCPA did not sign the agreement for the port to reserve the 90 acres, Higgins said.
“We’ve been talking with the company, and most of them speculate that they’ll make a decision on it sooner than that (2024),” Higgins said. “Some have speculated we may know in 2023. We are working with them on details on that site, and on the logistics and transportation. Everything’s on the table.”
EMCC, Communiversity benefiting from MSU partnerships
While presenting, Higgins did not hide his critiques of the East Mississippi Community College Communiversity’s ability to attract students. The campus opened in 2019 to serve as a secondary job training school for area industries. Though he said the campus is doing better than in the past and will “naturally improve” as more jobs are needed.
“It’s a Mexican standoff,” he said of the EMCC Board of Trustees, which he left in 2021. “It’s a go along to get along. I was on that board for a year and a half and it was like sticking a needle in my eyes once a month.”
Higgins said the school’s lack of students was his chief concern, noting he gave several tours to companies like Terberg Taylor, which is building a tractor manufacturing facility in Lowndes County. When they got there, the campus was mostly empty.
“We were talking with them some months back and they said they had 11 days in a month that no students were in there other than staff,” he said.
However, EMCC is now partnering with Mississippi State University on several grant projects to put more students in its classrooms.
EMCC President Scott Alsobrooks brought up the new partnership to the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 20 but kept additional details private at the time.
“The Communiversity and the partnership with (MSU) will effectively fill that building up,” he said to supervisors. “We will be at capacity there that quick. It happens really quick. We struggled through the pandemic all around at the college, but this is tremendous what is going to happen at the Communiversity.”
Terberg Taylor has also agreed to fill two classroom bay spaces to offer job training courses to its new employees coming up to the opening of its new facility.
Alsobrooks did not comment to The Dispatch following the meeting on specifics of the new partnership with MSU but said information is forthcoming.
“We are going to have a big press release later this spring,” he said. “The partnership with Mississippi State that is effectively going back to the Communiversity that is going to have the Communiversity at capacity.”
Reporter Jessica Lindsey contributed to this report.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.