My task: We got word that a new industrial park was about to be announced prior to any of the other media outlets in the Birmingham metro had found out due to GIS county mapping. We reached out to Othell Phillips, he was hesitant to give details due the information along with his press release not being publicly available yet. We cut him a deal that when he releases the press release then we would click publish so we could be the first outlet to break the story.
A new industrial park is in the works for Jefferson County.
Jefferson Metropolitan North Industrial Park is coming to a more than 1,000-acre property located at North Barber Road along Interstate 65's exit 275.
The county spent more than $3.1 million purchasing the land and is still awaiting development costs.
“Logistics-wise it’s great because we’re right on the exit,” said Othell Philips, executive director of the Jefferson County Economic Development Authority.
The 739-acre industrial park is estimated to produce six and a half jobs per acre, totaling close to 4,700 jobs when full.
Phillips envisions the park's tenant lineup to be made up of automobile suppliers and distribution centers. The new commerce park will have similar tenants as JeffMet McCalla.
JeffMet North is 72 miles from the Toyota Mazda plant in Huntsville, 47 miles from the Mercedes plant and 57 miles from the Honda plant in Lincoln.
"Most of the automobile manufacturers want their suppliers within 90 miles," Phillips said, from a logistics standpoint. “We will have a good chance of landing automobile suppliers that would supply to those large automobile manufacturers.”
Jefferson County was awarded over $190,000 for JeffMet North from the Site Evaluation and Economic Development Strategy Act (SEEDS) for engineering and geotech due diligence.
The funds are part of more than $30 million grants available under the SEEDS Act to speed the development of industry-ready sites across the state. A total of $30.1 million in SEEDS funding will be matched with $38.4 million in local funds at 29 different industrial sites encompassing nearly 8,400 acres.
Economic Development Partnership of Alabama President Greg Barker said sites receiving funding had qualities of developability, marketability for planned use and local developmental partnerships.
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