Economy
‘We’re in the Jobs Business,’ JCEIDA Leader Says in Announcing New North JeffCo Industrial Park

Jefferson County Economic & Industrial Development Authority has added about 1,100 acres to its inventory of developable land to create its latest industrial park in north Jefferson County.
JeffMet North Industrial Park, off Interstate 65 at Exit 275 near the Gardendale/Morris area, sets the stage for the creation of an estimated 4,700 new jobs and is expected to be a lure for auto suppliers.
The authority — which has developed sites in McCalla, Lakeshore and Titusville — ventured north for its latest land acquisition for three reasons, said Executive Director Othell Phillips.
“One, Jefferson County already owned property there,” he said. “We were able to utilize the unused section that the county already owned and then just add the two other parcels to it to make it the large site.
“Second, it was right by the interstate, that large tract right beside the interstate,” he said. “You can’t find that anywhere in Jefferson County, probably maybe anywhere almost in the state.”
The available workforce in that area was another plus.
“Other parts of the county have been saturated,” Phillips said. “Even though Jefferson County has the best workforce numbers in the state because of the population, this spread that workforce out to other areas. And it would draw really from multiple counties.”
Phillips cited the authority’s JeffMet McCalla Industrial Park as an example of what JeffMet North could produce. Before being developed, the JeffMet McCalla property was estimated to produce six jobs per acre. It has yielded 4,658 jobs.
“JeffMet McCalla has been very successful,” Phillips said. “If you look at the developable acreage, we have produced 6.5 jobs per acre on that property. If you use the same scale at the North Jefferson property, we have the potential of producing 4,700 jobs.
“McCalla is more of a manufacturing and industrial park and that’s kind of what we’re trying to duplicate in the north Jefferson area,” he said, “because manufacturing industry produces more jobs.”
Auto-Related Plants Eyed
JeffMet North industrial park is strategically located for automotive supplier opportunities as it is 72 miles from the Toyota Mazda Plant in Huntsville, 47 miles from the Mercedes Plant in Vance and 57 miles from the Honda Plant in Lincoln. The new park also will be ideal for additive manufacturing and food production facilities.
“Most of the automobile manufacturers want their suppliers within 90 miles. That way, logistically, it’s close enough to serve them, but they want them outside of their workforce area,” Phillips said. “We’re outside of their workforce area but within their supply chain, logistics area.”
JeffMet North thus will target suppliers for auto plants, following the pattern established between the Vance Mercedes plant and JeffMet McCalla, which has eight buildings that house automobile suppliers for Mercedes, Hyundai and other companies.
“We’re in the jobs business,” Phillips said. “We try to create jobs. That’s what our goal is.”
JCEIDA completed its acquisition of property after having received a $191,365 grant through the State Industrial Development Authority. JCEIDA matched the grant and so had $382,730 to purchase remaining land for JeffMet North.
The grant was awarded under the new Site Evaluation and Economic Development Strategy Act, which was part of Gov. Kay Ivy’s “Game Plan” package of economic development bills approved last year and aimed at developing industry-ready sites across the state.
JCEIDA was formed in 1995 by the Jefferson County Commission. Its mission was to provide an inventory of commercial sites for new and expanding businesses.
“We did have the full support of the Jefferson County Commission,” Phillips said. “They realized the importance of bringing new jobs in Jefferson County.”
The authority aims is to promote Jefferson County as a premier location for manufacturing, attract investment from leading global companies, retain and grow existing companies, develop, retain and attract talent and advocate for a competitive business climate.
In addition to the McCalla park, the authority also developed JeffMet Lakeshore Information Technology Park and JeffMet Titusville at the former Trinity Steel brownfield location that was sold to DC BLOX, which recently expanded its data storage operation.
Phillips, citing McCalla and Lakeshore as examples, said that manufacturing plants that JCEIDA recruits are clean manufacturers.