What was once a farm will be home to mile-long plant

BARTON -- The area was formerly known at Gilbert Farm. Today, it's known as the most fertile land for economic development in northwest Alabama.

The Barton Riverfront Industrial Park will be the home for National Alabama Corp., a railcar manufacturing plant that promises 1,800 jobs.

It's already home to SCA Tissue, a 500-employee operation that is considering expansion.

When National Alabama is operating at full capacity, which could come in late 2009 or early the following year, there will be more than 2,300 jobs at the industrial park.

Considering the Shoals has about 145,000 residents in the two-county area of Colbert and Lauderdale counties, that means the industrial park has the capacity to provide jobs for one out of approximately every 63 residents.

"Those folks who decided some years ago to buy Barton may have been even more visionary than they thought," said Forrest Wright, executive director of the Shoals Economic Development Authority.

Gilbert Farm, which was owned by Auburn University, was purchased by Wisconsin-based Chesapeake Corp. for $1.3 million in 1990. Chesapeake had plans to build a giant paper mill on the site, but later backed out.

Under the purchase agreement, Auburn retained the right to repurchase the land at the same price if the plant was not built within five years.

"We just couldn't let that site go back (to Auburn)," said Simpson Russell, who was SEDA's chairman at the time. "We hired a consulting firm from Atlanta and they had told us Barton was one of the best industrial sites in the Southeast.

The consulting firm said Barton was a can't-miss site because of its natural resources and having rail service, a four-lane highway and easy access to the Tennessee River.

"I can't say I envisioned a Canadian railcar company coming here with 1,500 jobs, but I believed that if we kept our focus on Barton, something good would happen there," Russell said.

Russell, Wright and members of SEDA's executive committee shared that sentiment. They worked out funding, ultimately through a Tennessee Valley Authority loan, and SEDA purchased the site on July 11, 1996.

At that time, there were 1,284 acres at the site. A month later, SEDA spent $500,000 more to purchase adjoining land that pushed the park to 1,600 acres.

To accommodate National Alabama's plans for a mile-long plant, SEDA purchased 300 additional acres at the site. The company will use about 640 acres.

Some other alterations will also be done at the industrial park. They include: