Aerostar’s $4.7 million Mobile expansion: 50 news jobs, $61,000 in tax incentives

Posted on by Michael Randle

An aerospace repair service company at Mobile’s Aeroplex at Brookley is poised to make a $4.7 million investment that is expected to add 50 new jobs over the next three years, increasing its employment to 110.

The salaries of the new positions will be around $50,000, according to the Mobile Chamber. The company, which has been in Mobile since 2011, will get a combined $61,600 in tax abatements; $27,500 in a sales tax abatement during the construction phase of the project and $34,100 of property tax abatements over a 10-year period. Both abatements are for the non-educational portion only. AL.com

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Elon Musk’s xAI seeks 550+ acres of land in Memphis

Posted on by Michael Randle

An LLC affiliated with California-based xAI is seeking to enter into a long-term lease with an option to purchase a huge plot of land near its operations at the former Electrolux facility near Presidents Island.

The Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) for Memphis & Shelby County owns the property and has called a special meeting for Friday, Oct. 4, related to the potential deal. The lease and option to sell the EDGE property would require its board’s approval to transfer the land to the AI company.

The 552-acre property is located just to the southeast of the xAI facility at 3231 Paul R. Lowry Road. Memphis Business Journal

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First Solar inaugurates $1.1 billion Alabama manufacturing facility

Posted on by Michael Randle

First Solar Inc. inaugurated its new $1.1 billion solar panel manufacturing facility in Lawrence County, which is expected to create more than 800 energy technology manufacturing jobs in Alabama.

The facility adds 3.5 gigawatts (GW) of fully vertically integrated nameplate solar manufacturing capacity in the United States. The project was announced in November 2022.“This represents a great day for First Solar and for Lawrence County because this production facility is destined to become a major player in the U.S. renewable energy market,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said. Alabama News Center

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Miller Girvin named new president of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama

Posted on by Michael Randle

Miller Girvin will become the new president of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) next year.

She replaces Greg Barker, who will step down as president of EDPA on Dec. 31, after four years at the post.

Girvin was unanimously elected to the position at the EDPA Board of Directors October meeting. She currently serves as EDPA’s COO.

A Birmingham native, Girvin joined EDPA in 2021, emphasizing innovation and entrepreneurial growth across Alabama. She previously served as CEO of the Alabama Capital Network and is a member of Gov. Kay Ivey’s Innovate Alabama Commission. AL.com

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Oracle’s East Bank campus will prove its Nashville commitment, exec says

Posted on by Michael Randle

A pivotal theme of Oracle Corp.’s planned worldwide headquarters on the East Bank is connectivity. 

“The thing I think that excites me the most about the design that I’ve seen is really around: How do we create space?” said Clay Magouyrk, executive vice president of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “It’s really optimized for bringing teams to work together.”

Magouyrk, who recently relocated to Nashville from Seattle, shared his thoughts on Oracle’s (NYSE: ORCL) $1.35 billion investment on 70 acres the company owns on the East Bank along the Cumberland River during the Business Journal’s Growth of Nashville event on Sept. 26.

“My needs are pretty basic,” Magouyrk said. “One of the things that I think is interesting about this campus is that it’s not just a regional office building. It’s really focused on how do we bring people together to actually build products?”Oracle is relocating its headquarters from Austin, which the company designated as its corporate home in late 2020. The Business Journal asked Jason Maynard, one of Oracle’s top-ranking local executives, about the permanency of Nashville’s headquarters status. Nashville Business Journal

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Report: Carolina Core needs 200,000 housing units over next 5 years to overcome supply shortage

Posted on by Michael Randle

At the Carolina Core Housing Summit at High Point University, North Carolina Realtors presented to local policymakers, employers and community leaders a finding that was not a surprise to many — that the region needs more housing, and more housing that is affordable.

The Summit was held to present the findings of an extensive housing study that N.C. Realtors, the Piedmont Triad Regional Partnership, and 11 local Realtor associations conducted along with Bowen National Research, with the goal of finding recommendations to improve housing access across North Carolina.Mike Barr, CEO of the Greensboro Regional Realtors Association, told Triad Business Journal in February that the study aimed to prepare the region for the influx of employees that the area will see due to Boom Supersonic, Toyota and other incoming economic development opportunities. Triad Business Journal

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Texas high-speed rail project gets nearly $64M grant

Posted on by Michael Randle

Plans for a high-speed rail line connecting Houston and Dallas are moving along after the project received a nearly $64 million grant.

With an estimated cost of $30 billion, the proposed 240-mile high-speed rail line would travel between the two cities in 90 minutes.

The $63.9 million grant awarded to Amtrak last month is part of a $153 million funding rollout from the U.S. Department of Transportation for passenger rail projects around the country that was announced back in July.The Houston-to-Dallas high-speed rail line has been in the works for years. The Houston Chronicle reports Texas Central Railway led the effort at first by buying land throughout the planned corridor. The newspaper reports the proposed route has 30% of the land needed for the project secured. San Antonio Business Journal

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This Memphis hotel ranks among the best in the South, according to Condé Nast Traveler

Posted on by Michael Randle

A major travel magazine has recognized a Downtown Memphis hotel as one of the best hotels in the South.

Condé Nast Traveler named Central Station Memphis as the South’s second-ranked hotel in its 2024 Readers’ Choice Awards.

The eight-story hotel is a Curio Collection by Hilton property with 123 rooms. The luxury boutique hotel is housed within a former train station and located Downtown at 545 S. Main St.

Central Station received a score of 98.74 from Condé Nast Traveler readers. The honored hotels are scheduled to be recognized in the November issue of the magazine. Memphis Business Journal

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These are the highest-paying jobs in Dallas-Fort Worth

Posted on by Michael Randle

Dallas-Fort Worth has one of the country’s strongest job markets.

DFW added nearly 68,000 jobs from July 2023 to July 2024, according to the latest federal and state estimates — and its 4.1% unemployment rate was lower than the United States average of 4.5% and Texas’ 4.4% rate.Good-paying jobs are what attract so many people to the Metroplex and keep them here. They help explain why a landlocked region with no ocean, no mountains and summer temperatures regularly in the triple digits remains one of the hottest places in the country for population growth. And all of the wealth created by those jobs fuels home-buying, spending at grocery stores and restaurants and many types of consumer purchases. Dallas Business Journal

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Another industrial park is rising near Taylor, Texas and it’s not just aimed at Samsung suppliers.

Posted on by Michael Randle

Another industrial park is headed to Taylor, with the aim of not only catering to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. suppliers but also to homegrown businesses intent on taking advantage of the city’s boom.

SGRE Capital GP LP plans to start work this month on a 51,000-square-foot, office-warehouse shell building at 1901 Industrial Drive, according to a Sept. 23 filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The $6.5 million project is expected to wrap up in August.

It’s the first building of what’s being called the Taylor Industrial Park, which encompasses roughly 20 acres less than five miles from the Samsung plant. The speculative building could be joined by at least four smaller buildings or two larger ones in future phrases totaling roughly 200,000 square feet, according to a brochure for the property.

Will Sikora, a senior associate with Aquila Commercial LLC, said developers initially bought the parcel with the idea that it would be a service center for Samsung customers. But competition in that space has skyrocketed ever since. Austin Business Journal

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