- A sign advertising the former Wellstone Apparel building is displayed at the facility’s entrance.
By Josh Mitchell/Informer Publisher
Local economic development officials are marketing a vacant factory building on U.S. Highway 98 in Columbia in hopes of bringing a new industry here.
This morning at the county Board of Supervisors meeting, Marion County Development Partnership Executive Director Jerry Frazier presented a plan to market the former Wellstone Apparel building.
Wellstone, which manufactured uniforms for the military and Postal Service, vacated the building about a year ago. Frazier said the 146,000-square-foot facility can be modified for many different uses including distribution and assembly.
MCDP Executive Director Jerry Frazier
Frazier is utilizing several different strategies to market the building including sending information about the facility to approximately 250 site consultants across the United States. Site consultants locate facilities for companies, Frazier noted.
In addition, economic development departments within Mississippi Power and the state Electric Power Association will also inform potential business prospects about the facility, Frazier said. The Mississippi Development Authority, which recruits businesses to Mississippi, is helping market the building as well.
A challenge is that there are many similar building across the United States, said Frazier. However, there are many advantages to the building, which is owned by the Marion County Development Authority and was built in the mid 1990s.
The former Wellstone Apparel building is 146,000 square feet.
Location is one of the bigger things working in the building’s favor with it being on a four-lane highway and near major interstates. The building’s high ceilings can accommodate many kinds of businesses, Frazier noted.
The mailer sent to the site consultants states many of the building’s advantages including: Strategically located to serve the Gulf Coast region; access to 55 percent of the U.S population in one day’s truck drive; access to five seaports in a two-hour drive; 40-minute drive to colleges and universities; 30 minutes from booming economic and commercial activity.
Other advantages listed on the mailer are: Existing overhead electrical rail supply and overhead air supply easily adaptable for various operations; tax exemptions for being county owned; local and state agencies willing to customize the building for specific criteria; low-cost operating area; sprinkled; air conditioned; labor draw from six counties; 6,000 square feet of office space wired for network.
Refresh my memory here, someone. Did this company get tax abatements (equipment or training breaks), and if so, is the city doing anything to recoup any losses? Thanks.
It’s pretty sad that it takes the Marion County Development Partnership almost a year just to come up with a plan to “market” a building and property. One would think in these economic times that situations like this are handled in a shorter time frame. When no one is held accountable for performance in a job, and all is looked at are credentials on paper, I guess this is the results one can expect.
How can the “Marion County Development Authority” own the building and property when it is being paid for by taxpayers through a bond issue? Who is over this MCDA? What form of hierarchy is involved in this MCDA? Are the County Supervisors over this MCDA? Someone with the facts please reply and enlighten me.
Can anyone list the businesses this MCDP has brought to Marion county?
I do remember a manufactured housing enterprise on the Airport rd. by the landfill that had a ribbon cutting ceremony in the Columbian Progress. That business venture evaporated after the ribbon cutting ceremony if I’m not mistaken.
Anyone know any details on any of above please reply.
Hey citizen.
I’m a big fan of a site called guidestar. It shows the tax forms for the various not-for-profits, and the basic searches are free. You do have to register, though.
I don’t have an extra five minutes right now to pull up the tax returns, but if memory serves me, seems the last time I looked, it showed no pay for the MCDP head, but somewhere creeping into the $40,000 range salary for the chamber head, Burton.
If Frazier does, indeed, volunteer his time to head this up, I tip my hat to his kindness and efforts.
The “Wellstone” property was originally donated to the city to be used to expand Woodlawn Cemetery by the Sam Gilbert family as I recall.