THEODORE, Ala. — The South Alabama Logistics Park is celebrating continued growth as construction of its newest building is nearing completion.
The 1,300-acre logistics park is located along I-10 and Theodore Dawes Road. The newest building is a 185,000-square-foot facility.
“We don’t have an end user in tow yet, but that’s what you have to do to recruit the industry. You can’t sell what you don’t have. So, we build these buildings on spec with the vision that the users want to be here because of the port,” said Philip Burton, president and CEO of Burton Property Group.
Just twelve miles away from Mobile’s Container Port, there are a number of things the building could be used for.
“These buildings are very versatile. However, most of the buildings are built with the port user in mind. A lot of the companies that you see out here are bringing raw materials from the containerized cargo terminal, which is 12 miles away, bringing them here, unloading them and either distributing them back out, or, in some instances, assembling and then finally sending them out,” said Burton.
Bradley Burne with the Mobile Chamber says each new building equals new jobs, and it’s all being driven by the growth at the port.
“This is important for Mobile because this isn’t just an inert building. There will be dozens of people working in that building. This is the fourth building that they’ve done. They have the capacity to go up to 12 million square feet. You could have hundreds, thousands of people working out just in this vicinity,” he said.
So far, about 700,000 square feet of facilities are on the ground, over three hundred jobs have been created, and more than one million dollars have been invested.
“You don’t have an end user when you build it, but the great thing about it is, when your end user shows up and says, I need it now, you say, there’s your building. We’re doing this regularly now, so we’re trying to make sure we let the international and national market know that Mobile, as a warehouse destination, is open for business,” said Byrne.
Source: https://mynbc15.com/news/local/mobile-county-logistics-park-celebrates-continued-growth