By Michael Tomberlin
If you ever wanted a crash course in economic development, all you had to do was pay attention to the activity taking place in Alabama the past few days.
Some of the truisms of recruiting and expanding industry have been held up as, well, truisms.
For instance, “Confidentiality comes with the territory.”
We now know the identity of what was being called “Project Alpine.” Voestalpine said it will invest $11.1 million in the Birmingham area to make parts for German automakers in the Southeast, beginning in September 2017.
Officials have yet to reveal the companies behind “Project Sunrise,” which is eyeing Jefferson County, or “Project Rumba,” looking to locate in Montgomery. There are rumors of a major distribution project in the Mobile area.
There are competitive reasons for companies not wanting their names or their plans known before they are ready. There are also public relations and operational concerns in most cases.
After more than two decades covering economic development, I could tell many stories regarding confidentiality, confusion and rumor surrounding the cat-and-mouse game of recruitment.
Another truism is, “Success begets success.”
Alabama was awarded the “Silver Shovel Award” from Area Development magazine for its successes in 2015, joining a streak of similar recognition that has lasted a decade.
Once you show you are good at supporting a particular industry, it gets easier to attract that industry. The voestalpine project is a perfect example. The Austrian-based company was familiar with the Birmingham area because of its rail technologies operations in the Pinson Valley. Alabama is adept at attracting and expanding the automotive industry, so it’s no wonder that voestalpine wants to invest millions in the Oxmoor Valley and create 42 manufacturing jobs.
The same is true of Kamtek’s massive expansion and new operations in Birmingham, Yorozu establishing an automotive supplier plant in Jasper, Eissmann expanding in Pell City and numerous other automotive examples.
The same is true for the addition of aerospace suppliers in and around Mobile now that Airbus is producing airplanes.
Another truism is, “Economic development comes to those best prepared.”
The opening of Interstate 22 has been decades in the making and has long had the support of the business and economic development communities. That’s because interstates are the lifeblood of major projects. The most prime industrial sites are those that exist just off interstates (and it doesn’t hurt to have rail, too).
Birmingham joins Atlanta and Nashville as the only Southeastern cities that can boast of six interstate spokes off a downtown area. But more important than what the interstate does for the city may be what it does for rural parts of the state that previously were not served by an interstate. I-22 now opens up a large swath of northwest Alabama for the kind of economic development that interstate-served regions of the state have long enjoyed.
Another primary type of preparedness is having sites ready for economic development. The Tennessee Valley Authority recently declared 1,252 acres in Limestone County as one of its Mega Sites, meaning the property is ready to land a large, international project.
The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama has a similar program known as AdvantageSite for ready-to-develop properties and has more than 50 such sites certified throughout the state.
Beyond sites, you have to have buildings.
The Walker County Development Authority and the Jasper Industrial Development Board are using the Alabama Power speculative building program to build the fifth speculative building in Jasper Industrial Park.
“Project Sunrise” plans to move into more than 1 million square feet of vacant industrial space in the Pinson Valley and voestalpine is taking vacant space in the Oxmoor Valley.
Watching all of the activity we’re seeing at the halfway point of 2016, there might be another truism to consider: Alabama is on a roll.
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