- 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.
