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Activity Pours into Southern Alabama

Southern Alabama is seeing much of the same kinds of activities as its northern counterparts -- lots of activity in a wide variety of industries. Like much of the state, southern Alabama has experienced strong growth in the distribution/warehousing industry as well as manufacturing, including some automotive. And on the high-tech end of the spectrum, southern Alabama experienced strong growth in both the call center and aerospace industries.

In call center activity, both Mobile and Dothan attracted major operations to their communities. Hertz Corp. located in Saraland, Mobile County, while West TeleServices opened up its 300-job call center in Dothan.

Mobile's ability to attract such industries is based on the community's commitment to helping call centers fulfill their labor needs. "We have annually been recruiting in the call center arena for the past 10 years," says Jim Apple, vice president of economic development with the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce. "We have six call centers in Mobile, and our program calls for a new call center location every two to three years. But at the beginning of a new call center, we specifically back off that market. For example, for Hertz Corp., part of our commitment package to Hertz was a self-imposed moratorium on call center recruiting for a period of about three years."

Hertz built a new $10 million inbound reservation center last year, which will serve as the company's only other U.S. reservation center outside Oklahoma City. Initially, the center will hire 500 workers, growing to 1,000 in the next five years.

Mobile and Dothan also saw activity in their growing aviation and aerospace industries. For instance, Mobile Aerospace Engineering in Mobile recently dedicated a new hangar facility, which will employ an additional 200 people, and in Dothan, Kimco Air Services is also undergoing a major expansion under its new owners.

"That's really a strong niche with the training, the base, the technical skills, the location and the services that are available here," says Matt Parker, president of the Dothan Chamber of Commerce. "And Dothan has lower costs than some of the major metro airports that you have to fly into to get modifications done."

Southern Alabama is also well-suited for manufacturing operations in that it has the capabilities to bring in any raw materials through the Port of Mobile, and it has the transportation network, including four national rail roads in Mobile and extensive trucking and intermodal facilities, to get the product out to customers.

Last year's big news in the manufacturing arena was the IPSCO Steel mini-mill, a $425 million project in Mobile that will add 450 new jobs to the economy. And much like the auto industry, IPSCO's major investment in Mobile has attracted suppliers to the area. For example, Praxair has begun construction on a $12 million air separation plant in Axis, just outside of Mobile, to supply oxygen, nitrogen and argon to the mini-mill.

But the steel industry is not all that is doing well in southern Alabama's manufacturing arena. In fact, several announcements were made throughout the region, including Australia-based Austal Ships' recent move to Mobile.

Austal, a manufacturer of aluminum ships and boats, has joined forces with Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co. of Mobile to build a wide range of high-speed ferries. If the new venture, to be called Austal USA, pans out as expected, the aluminum shipbuilding project will create 1,000 new jobs in Mobile.

In Dothan, the manufacturing business is doing just as well. Dunbarton Corp., a steel door and doorframe manufacturer, expanded its facility with a $9 million investment, adding 135 new jobs. Collins Signs Co. spent $5 million to expand its facilities, creating 400 new jobs, and Idea Associates opened a new $1 million facility, adding 100 jobs to the economy. Both Collins Signs and Idea Associates are sign manufacturers.

Just west of Dothan, German-based MAHA, a leading producer of automotive testing equipment, has set up shop in Pinckard to manufacture lifts. MAHA will invest $5 million to $10 million for its facility, where it will employ 100 people within two years. Users of MAHA's products include Mercedes-Benz.

Distribution, too, is booming in southern Alabama. And again the same infrastructure the provides inroads for manufacturing plants also provides opportunities for a rapidly growing distribution market.

Ace Hardware certainly saw an opportunity to fulfill its distribution needs in southern Alabama. So much so that it is investing $35 million for a new distribution center in Loxley, Baldwin County. The new 795,000-sq.-ft. (73,858-sq.-m.) facility will employ 300 workers. "We considered several areas in Florida and Alabama," says George Harris, Ace Hardware corporate property and planning manager. "We chose Loxley because of its central location to our market area." Harris also cited the local officials' cooperation and the available work force as reasons for choosing the Loxley site.

Dothan, too, has been very successful in winning distribution facilities as of late. The biggest such announcement came from McLane Co., the nation's largest distributor to convenience stores. McLane built a $26 million, 300,000-plus-sq.-ft. (27,871-plus-sq.-m.) distribution facility in the Houston County Distribution Park to serve Alabama, Georgia and Florida. The new center initially created 300 jobs, but it will grow to 400 within three years. McLane's investment in Dothan over the next 10 years is estimated at $265 million.

"Our niche is definitely serving the Florida market and the growth markets of the Southeast for distribution," says Parker. "And with the McLane project, that sends a real strong signal because that was a hyper-track project. We put that project in the ground in nine months, and we had to do about $4 million in infrastructure improvements to make that happen. Our team was made up of the utilities company, the city, the county and our business community as well as the state, and everybody knew their role and played it well."