Thursday, February 23, 2006

By GINA HANNAH
Times Business Writer, ginah@htimes.com

For years, communities have worked to lure industry by offering such perks as tax breaks and free worker training. A new trend has cities and counties building an inventory of large sites ready for industrial development.

Around the country, state and local governments have developed programs to get pieces of land "project-ready" for companies that would seek to bring new jobs. These "certified sites" are intended to lure and expedite industrial projects, particularly in the automotive industry.

North Alabama may soon get such a site.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is working with consultants and officials throughout the region to certify a site under TVA's "megasite" certification program. Officials decline to say where the site may be, but one requirement is that a megasite be at least 1,000 acres. According to the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama's Web site, five sites in North Alabama meet at least that criterion.

Four of the sites are in Limestone County.

"Right now we're just working on developing our inventory of sites," said Tom Hill, director of economic development for Limestone County. Each site under consideration must undergo a number of tests to make sure it is ready for development. The land must have easy access to interstate roads, water, electrical and sewer services. The soil must be stable; core drilling will be done to look for sink holes and other problems, Hill said.

The site must also be free from environmental issues, such as endangered species, flood plains or archeological sites. The land must also be available, which sometimes means getting multiple property owners to agree to sell, he said.

"The big thing for us is, once you have a certified site, it's a marketing tool," Hill said.

TVA embarked on its megasite certification program in 2004, after noting automotive companies building assembly and component plants in the South. The sites are geared to the automotive industry but are open to others as well, said John Bradley, TVA's senior vice president of economic development.

The program, which ends March 31, has netted five megasites throughout the utility's region: Hopkinsville, Ky.; Chattanooga; Bells, Tenn.; Tupelo, Miss.; and Columbus, Miss. The Columbus site was recently chosen by SeverCorr LLC for an $800 million steel mill. The plant is expected to employ about 450 people with an average annual salary of $70,000, Bradley said.

This isn't the first time sites in the area have sought certification for industry. Several years ago, a site at interstates 65 and 565 was certified for a semiconductor plant.

The interest in site certification is coming from the companies looking for new places to operate, said Mike Sweeney, principal of McCallum Sweeney Consulting, which is working with TVA to certify megasites. McCallum Sweeney helped Tennessee lure Nissan's North American Headquarters from Los Angeles, and has worked with governments and utilities around the nation, including the state of Washington and Duke Power.

Because competition in the automotive industry is fierce, manufacturers must be able to move quickly once they decide where they're going to build a new plant, Sweeney said. These companies benefit by choosing a site that has been certified to be ready for development. The soil studies, infrastructure and environmental approvals are all in place.

Sweeney said his firm requires land undergoing certification to have an endangered species survey, zoning and flooding information and ready access to utilities and transportation.

"If (TVA) were going to pick these sites and market them, they wanted to be sure they met the requirements" Sweeney said. "It's not an easy thing to have happen."

TVA's Bradley said a certified site can save a company six to nine months off the time it takes to survey and select a site for a new plant.

"When that client comes, you're taking away all the risk for that site," he said.

If TVA finds any potential megasites after the program ends, it could still be considered for certification, but that's not likely to happen, Bradley said.

"We've got a pretty good idea of all the sites that are out there," he said. "Not that many that meet all the criteria. We feel like it's been a pretty thorough process."

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