If you build it, will they come? The Brookhaven-Lincoln County Economic Development Alliance certainly hopes so.

Interest in the Linbrook Business Park continues to grow, according to Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Garrick Combs.

The Alliance and partner Agracel, an industrial development company, are moving forward on the construction of a spec facility in the vacant park.

The plan that was approved last year stated that the Alliance would partner with Agracel, who would construct a building to house a potential business on 10 to 20 acres of the 400-acre business park. Having a facility in place that a manufacturer or other industrial company could move into and quickly customize to their needs is huge, Combs said.

“Since last summer, when the city and county approved our plan to construct the second speculative industrial building, all of the site preparation has been done,” Combs said. “There is a 100,000-square-foot pad that has been constructed.”

“The worksite has been transferred from Oddee Smith Construction to Laws Construction,” Combs said. “Laws Construction is actually the one that has the contract with Agracel to construct the building. Now the actual building contractor has taken possession of the site from the dirt contractor.”

When construction timelines were projected last year, the Alliance anticipated that the facility would be complete by now, Combs said, but the unfore-
seen fall and winter storms delayed construction by several months.

“Hopefully, now that we are getting into the more traditional construction season, we’ll be able to make up some ground,” Combs said. “The next step is to get the slab poured. Once the slab is in place, then we will no longer be beholden to the weather. At that point, the contractor can work at an assigned pace outside of the weather.”

The Alliance has received several inquiries on the building, Combs said.

“Historically, there tends to be a lot more interest in a building than land,” Combs said. “Once you complete a building, you’ve eliminated the unknowns. When you construct a building, you essentially cut 12 to 18 months off of a company’s time from when they make the initial inquiry, to when they can be in business. Even though we’ve just announced that we are building the building, it has already generated more activity than just the raw land.”

“The unknown factor is that until the slab is poured, we can’t give anybody a concrete construction schedule,” Combs said. “We are at the mercy of the rain.”

Although the rain has slowed construction progress, Combs said the Alliance has been promoting the project since January.

“We’ve been telling the Mississippi Development Authority and telling corporate real estate executives what we have planned in Brookhaven,” Combs said. “We’ve already taken a number of inquiries on the building.”

“I have meetings with Agracel’s management the first week of May to put together marketing strategies for the rest of the year and to project when the slab will be poured,” Combs said.

Combs said the Alliance has outlined criteria on the type of company it will sell the building to, even though it may take a while to complete the construction.

“The building will be filled by the company that meets the goals and objectives of the community, our park and Agracel,” Combs said. “That means the company has to be financially sound. They have to be a good corporate partner. We will look at their environmental history, their financial history and what kind of noise or odor they will bring. We want a good community partner that runs much like our companies in the other industrial park. We want nice, neat property. We want an industrial park that develops and provides jobs and investment to the community. It’s not a simple process. It’s not going to be simply a function of price.”

The Alliance was formed in 2005 alongside the acquisition and development of the Linbrook Business Park, and is a subset of local government whose board has members from both the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors and the Brookhaven Board of Aldermen. After a joint session between the supervisors and aldermen last June, each board voted unanimously to increase the Alliance’s budget by $80,000 from each board.

According to published numbers, the county and city each provided $2.2 million toward the purchase of the property and to install the infrastructure at Linbrook, while the Chamber of Commerce contributed $500,000 to the project. The Alliance also secured a $1.1 million grant through the Economic Development Administration.