BALDWIN COUNTY, ALABAMA DEVELOPMENTS
A Publication of the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance

Welcome to the BCEDA newsletter
Summer 2003

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           IN THIS ISSUE:
                           PRECISION IBC BUILDING NEW HQ IN FAIRHOPE
                           EXISTING BUSINESS INTERVIEWS UNDERWAY
                           AMERICAN CHAMFER UP AND OPERATING
                           BALDWIN COUNTY BUSINESS INCUBATOR
                           DYNAMIC AIR RELOCATES TO ELBERTA!
                           ESTES EXPRESS LOCATES IN LOXLEY
                           LEAN MANUFACTURING AND OFFICE SEMINARS SLATED FOR SEPTEMBER
                           QUALITY FILTERS EXPANDS IN ROBERTSDALE
                           SWAEDA BRINGS RED CARPET TOUR TO BALDWIN COUNTY
                           PRO-CELL COMPLETES MAJOR PART OF FACILITY
                           BCEDA TOURISM/MARKETING CAMPAIGN  
 

PRECISION IBC NEW HEADQUARTERS FACILITY IN FAIRHOPE
Precision IBC, Inc., of Fairhope, Alabama has announced construction of their new headquarters facility in the Fairhope Industrial Park. The 17,000 square foot building will include executive offices, administrative, data processing and an R & D facility. The $1.4 million facility will be completed in December 2003. The Industrial Development Board of Fairhope and BCEDA assisted Precision IBC with tax incentives for the project.

Precision IBC is a portable tank leasing and fleet management company providing returnable, re-usable liquid and dry bulk packaging to the custom chemical, food, cosmetic and petroleum industries nationwide. Precision IBC also has a distribution facility in Broussard, Louisiana.  The new facility will be constructed adjacent to the Goodrich Aerospace facility on McGowin Drive and Hwy. 98.

  

BCEDA/Chambers Conducting Existing Business Interviews
 As a joint project of BCEDA and the five chambers of commerce in Baldwin County, BCEDA has trained business leaders who have volunteered to spend an hour each month to interview another business owner in their community.

The purpose of each informal interview is to identify common business needs and any specific help that the community could provide to help each business be more successful. The goal of this project is to interview 100 companies by January 2004 and BCEDA has contracted with the Economic Development of Alabama to utilize the Synchronist software.  See the press release on the website for more details.
 

            

American Chamfer Up and Operating
American Chamfer has completed construction of their 10,000 sq. ft. building in Summerdale. American Chamfer is owned by Chris Petersen of Daphne. The company is currently hiring production and supervisory personnel. Go to www.baldwinjobs.org for more information on employment opportunities.

Baldwin County Business Incubator
May 2003 marked one year since the Baldwin County Business Incubator opened for business. While you still won’t find an incubator building in the county by this name, you will find over 70 new – or about to be new – companies who have been helped along in their development by our “virtual” incubator. Our strategy is to provide most of the services of a bricks-and-mortar traditional incubator while assisting the client companies find commercial space, sometimes at discounted  rates, throughout the county.  www.baldwinincubator.com

 

THE BCEDA ANNUAL ALLIANCE 2005 INVESTOR BRIEFING WILL BE HELD SEPTEMBER 25, 2003.
ALL OF OUR INVESTORS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ALLIES ARE INVITED TO ATTEND.
FOR INFORMATION ON BECOMING AN INVESTOR,  PLEASE CALL OUR OFFICE  947-2445.

Dynamic Air Relocates to Elberta!                                                           
Dynamic Air President Susan Knighton, Executive Vice President Stan Knighton, Elberta Mayor Skip Gruber, and Elberta Industrial Development Board Chairman Chuck Williams announced that Dynamic Air is moving its manufacturing facility from Michigan to Elberta. Dynamic Air, manufactures air compression medical devices utilized by Hospitals and medical clinics in throughout the United States. The move to Elberta will create 21 jobs and over $4 million in capital investment. The company is developing a medical manufacturing, distribution and corporate headquarters campus on a 30 acre site near Baldwin County Highway 32 and 95. The first production related building in the campus will be 6,000 sq. ft.

Knighton noted that the site search took two years and a thorough analysis. "We looked at sites in several states including Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan and Florida (Pensacola). Baldwin County and the Elberta area has a great business climate, a great workforce and the financing and incentives we need to make the move. The Alliance, IDB, city, county and the chamber worked hard to recruit us and we look forward to joining the Baldwin County Manufacturing and Technology Community."  BCEDA Chairman Jim Currie noted that the staff of the Alliance has been working with Dynamic Air for almost three years on this project.

Dynamic Air plans to hire most of its workforce from Baldwin County and will offer a full-time chaplain as a service to employees. For more information on Dynamic Air visit: www.dynamicair.net .

Estes Express Lines Establishes Terminal Facility in Loxley
Estes Express Lines has recently completed construction of its trucking terminal in facility in Loxley. Angela Maidment, Director of Real Estate and Economic Development for Estes Express Lines noted: “The 16.64 acre site and 13,280 sq. ft. terminal building is in full operation in Loxley with 38 employees. We appreciate the assistance of the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance with selection and the Town of Loxley for their assistance in helping us facilitate the permitting and building occupancy process. We look forward to becoming a part of the Industrial community of Loxley and Baldwin County.”  For more information on Estes Express Lines, visit www.estes-express.com.

Lean Manufacturing and Office Intro Set for September
In the interest of continuing to do everything we can to help our existing businesses be more successful, the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance and the five Chambers of Commerce have encouraged the Alabama Technology Network (ATN) to bring two introductory classes to our area.

Lean 101 is intended for plant managers, manufacturing engineers, production managers, and supervisors of manufacturing companies. It teaches a proven set of continuous improvement techniques to reduce waste and improve quality in a manufacturing environment.

Lean Office is a version intended for ANY office that includes repetitive tasks - think finance, real estate, hospitality, health care, and so forth. The same techniques that have been successful in manufacturing are taught here to reduce waste and improve quality in an office environment.

Both courses are built around a live simulation of the manufacturing or office environment, and both can cite examples of companies that have been able to reduce work-in-process up to 90%, reduce floor space up to 70%, and reduce errors up to 50%. These are introductory courses, which will prepare the participants to immediately put some of the lean principles to work in their businesses. ATN offers more in-depth programs with on site trainers for companies that want to pursue this further.

Lean 101 will be at the Faulkner State Community College in Bay Minette on September 24 from 8:00 - 5:00. Lean Office will be in the training room across from the BCEDA office on the 3rd floor of the Regions Bank building in Robertsdale on September 23 from 8:00 - 5:00. The fees are $250 for the first participant from each company, $225 each for multiple enrollments. Maximum class size for Lean Office is 12; Lean 101 is 25.

Send enrollments to:
Alabama Technology Network - Brewton
P.O. Box 787
Brewton, AL 36427
Email: cccecil@atn.org
For more information, contact Harry Cecil at ATN (888) 925-8764 ext 103.

 

Quality Filters Expands in Robertsdale!
Quality Filters, Inc. President George Spottswood and Robertsdale Industrial Development Board Chairman Keith Cooper announced completion of the company's new 10,000 sq. ft. air-conditioned plant expansion in Phase One of the Robertsdale Industrial Park.  Quality Filters, Inc. invested in excess of $300,000 in the new building which will be used for manufacturing paint overspray collection filtration products as well as their high efficiency Bag and Rigid Cell filter products used in the commercial & industrial marketplace.  BCEDA has administered an application for an Alabama Industrial Development Grant for the Robertsdale IDB on behalf of Quality Filters for this expansion.

                     

SWAEDA Brings Red Carpet Tour to Baldwin County
Members of the Southwest Alabama Economic Development Alliance (SWAEDA) recently hosted a two-day Red Carpet tour for several state economic developers. SWEADA includes Baldwin, Butler, Conecuh, Covington, Escambia and Monroe counties. The tour, organized by SWEADA President Eric Basinger and Treasurer Marshall Rogers, allowed representatives from state economic development agencies an opportunity to view available sites and buildings as well as tour existing industries in the six county region. Each county had the opportunity to show its available resources and infrastructure. Those attending the tour were: Bob Smith, ADO; Dusty Brown, AIDT; Louis Lockhart, Alabama Electric Co-op; John Sansom, CRX Railroad; Ted Levi, Alabama Power Co.; Mayor Howard Shell; Leigh Davis, Alabama Power Co. as pictured below.

                                         

Pro-Cell, L.L.C. Completes Major Part of Facility
The state-of-the-art 60,500 sq. ft. manufacturing facility is under construction at Barin Field in Foley. Owners Larry and Kevin Sloan plan to employ 120 people within three years and invest approximately $6,000,000 on the 20 acre site located adjacent to the Foley Beach Express.

The company will manufacture and extrude plastic lumber, and specifically focus on producing decking material. This will also establish Pro-Cell’s corporate headquarters, manufacturing and distribution in Foley.

                          

                                     Above is Pro-Cell’s construction progress to date.

Tourism/Marketing                                              
The Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitor’s Bureau recently reported that we had 3.2 million visitors to the area in 2002. That’s more than any other county between here and Panama City!

We are putting a business recruiting message in front of many of those visitors this year on magnets on condo and beach house refrigerators, on posters in condominium building commons areas, in radio and TV spots, and in an ad in Condo Owner magazine. The message is simple: “Why not move your business near your beach?”

Lance LaCour, President & CEO noted, "We’ll track the response to this campaign with a separate web site address. If it works, we will look for ways to expand it next year. Thanks to Baldwin EMC, Sunny 105.7, Kaiser Realty, Brett-Robinson Real Estate, and Meyer Real Estate for your support and participation in this campaign!"

Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance
P. O. Box 1340
Robertsdale, AL 36567
(251)947-2445  (251) 947-4229 fax

OFFICERS:
Jim Currie, Chairman--AmSouth Bank
Earl Stephens, Vice Chairman--Baldwin Pole & Piling
Jody Taylor, Treasurer--Baldwin EMC
Teresa King, Secretary--The Insurance Center
Jerry Merrill, Immediate Past Chairman--Mexico Rock

STAFF:
Lance LaCour, President & CEO
Bob Higgins, Vice President
Sean Lytle, Manager, Research & Information Technology
Karen Glover, Operations Manager
Joyce Kinard, Administrative Assistant

www.baldwineda.com

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