Mayor Keith Gaskin spoke to the Columbus Rotary Club Tuesday afternoon about economic development, annexation and possibly adding some positions at City Hall in the next budget year.
Gaskin said the city is working hard to nurture economic development in ways that don’t necessarily involve giant industrial prospects.
“The city and county came together earlier this year and sold the Maxxim Medical building to Apex Ammunition,” he said. “They are investing $4.4 million in that building to refurbish it and will add about 64 jobs in the city limits. That’s huge.”
Apex manufactures premium shotgun ammunition. The company agreed to buy the building, which sits on 7.8 acres off of Yorkville Park Square, late last year. It was jointly owned by the city and county and housed the Lowndes County Coroner’s Office, with the balance of the space used for storage.
The Apex deal gives the city hope it can fill some of its empty buildings, Gaskin said.
“These are the types of things cities can do outside of what (The Golden Triangle Development LINK) does,” Gaskin said. “We can attract small business and industry to fill those buildings, and we’ve got to do that.”
Gaskin said Hull Group is making visible progress on revitalizing Leigh Mall, now redubbed Columbus Place.
“Hull Properties is showing us that they’re going to do (make the mall viable), and they can do it,” Gaskin said. “(Hull Group Founder James Hull) and his team are very invested in Columbus, and they want to attract retail and help small businesses who might want to relocate to Columbus Place.”
Gaskin said he thought a mall-related announcement was on the way.
“There’s some other information we’ll be able to announce in the not-too-distant future that I think will make you smile,” Gaskin said. “… But I can’t say anything just yet.”
Georgia-based Hull Group bought Leigh Mall in 2019 at auction. Renovations, including turning into an outward-facing shopping complex, are underway. Last year the company received about $3 million in economic incentives from the city and county.
Gaskin briefly spoke to the possibility of annexation.
The city has retained Oxford-based consultants Bridge and Watson to do a feasibility study on three areas. Two of those are in East Columbus, and the third is Columbus Air Force Base.
“The reason that you look at CAFB is because it is self-contained,” Gaskin said. “There’s not going to be any real expense to the city if we annex them in. They’ve got fire (protection), police and everything there.”
Gaskin said most of the base residents vote in their hometowns, and so annexing likely wouldn’t have a big impact on local elections.
“We’re far away from (annexation) happening,” Gaskin said. “… We want to make sure we’re very careful about this, because we don’t want this to negatively affect the base at all. It’s just a conversation at this point.”
Gaskin said he hoped the city would add a grant administrator and a city planner in the upcoming budget year.
“City planners are very important for growth,” he said. “We have not had one in a full-time role for quite some time.”
City Planner Christina Berry resigned in October 2016. Since then, George Irby has served as interim.
“The grant administrator is because we have got to be more aggressive seeking state and federal grants, as well as nonprofit and private money,” Gaskin said. “We are woefully behind in that area.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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