What's next for Shoals?

The Shoals was staring at an unemployment rate that hovered around double digits.

Residents, meanwhile, were glaring at their local leaders and economic development officials, imploring them to come up with a plan to save the area's economy.

That was the way the new decade and new millennium greeted the Shoals, and the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks only made the news more bleak.

Since the area hit rock bottom in early 2002, the Shoals has written a story of success that is being told worldwide.

During the past five years, more than 4,200 jobs have been added to the work force in Colbert and Lauderdale counties. As a result, frustration has turned to optimism among most Shoals residents.

"I just can't wait to see what we do next," said state Sen. Bobby Denton, D-Muscle Shoals.

James Sercy, a Tuscumbia resident and lifelong resident of the Shoals, said he likes the direction the area's economy is heading. He wonders, however, if things would have turned out so well had the area not taken a "hard and critical look at ourselves."

The Shoals responded to the challenge as evidenced by new businesses that have come to the area as well as numerous expansions from existing operations.

Government and economic development leaders point to two projects as the driving force in the turnaround.

Local officials hooked up with the Retirement Systems of Alabama to create a tourism project that helped change the area's image and bring people to the area, including some who make decisions for their companies.

At the same time, Shoals Economic Development Authority officials were heavily involved in recruiting SCA Tissue to the area.

Both projects were landed in 2002, and the momentum hasn't slowed.

Building the foundation

The RSA project has been labeled by Muscle Shoals Mayor David Bradford and others as the foundation for what has occurred.

RSA Executive Director David Bronner's tourism plan forced local mayors and county commission chairmen to come together and put aside any egos and the mentality that their own turf had to be protected.

The group had to make some tough decisions together, including leading the effort to pass a 2-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax, an unpopular move politically but one that allowed the Shoals to see the RSA project become reality.

That cooperation carried over months later during negotiations with SCA Tissue, a Swedish company.

Those same elected officials got together again and led a united effort of all six governments to put together an incentive package that was essential in landing the project and 440 jobs.

They got together again to help land the Walgreen's Initiatives Call Center and North American Lighting, a Japanese company. Additional industries started knocking on the local door.

Then the big one that the area has longed for since undergoing massive layoffs and industry closings during the 1980s and 1990s started snooping around.

The Canadian company, National Steel Car Limited, was looking to expand into the United States.

Again, the Shoals came together. While SEDA officials worked closely with the company and state economic development officials, local leaders agreed to increase the local sales tax by a half-cent.

The money was needed to provide hefty incentives to help lure the company to the Shoals. They went into the endeavor with an eye on the future, earmarking every dime to economic development.

On Wednesday, National Steel's parent company, National Industries Inc., announced it would build National Alabama Corp. at the Barton Riverfront Industrial Park -- a project that will provide 1,800 jobs manufacturing railcars.

"We're not at the same place we were five years ago," said Forrest Wright, executive director of the Shoals Economic Development Authority. "To turn our area around, considering where we were, it meant everyone had to give a little. Getting the RSA project took the greatest cooperation, and it has gotten better and better each time. Instead of saying I'm willing to cooperate as long as you do it my way, people started saying 'here's what I'm willing to do.' "

That's the foundation Bradford was alluding to and one local leaders say will sustain the momentum.

"We had to start crawling first and we did that with RSA," Bradford said. "We started walking with SCA Tissue and North American Lighting. With National Alabama, we're jogging. Now, we're ready to start sprinting."

A good 5-year run

"We've had a good run, but I think we just got started," said Macke Mauldin, who chairs the SEDA's board. "The best is yet to come."

The Shoals' unemployment rate in May was 3.4 percent, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Labor. And that doesn't count the 1,800 jobs headed our way or the construction jobs that will be involved in building the mile-long railcar plant.

Since the RSA project was announced in 2002, at least 28 industries have opened in the Shoals -- some big and some not so big. Only two have closed since, according to figures provided by SEDA.

There have been 37 expansions of existing businesses.

Counting the anticipated National Alabama jobs, those expansions and new industries have produced more than 4,200 new jobs for the Shoals.

That does not include jobs associated with retail, food and service industries that have been added to the landscape.

Still, the Shoals and Gadsden have the largest unemployment rate among Alabama's 11 metropolitan statistical areas at 3.4 percent. The average state rate is 3 percent.

That's a far cry from May 2002, when the Shoals' rate was 9.9 percent. The area had teetered just above and below 10 percent during the preceding months. At that time, Decatur had the second-highest rate, at 5.9 percent, and the state's rate was 5.5 percent, labor statistics indicate.

With the introduction of the RSA package, which included two Robert Trent Jones golf courses in Colbert County and what has become a four-diamond Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa in Florence, things started changing. The unemployment rate at the end of 2002 was 7.7 percent in the Shoals, according to labor figures. It was 6.7 percent at the end of 2003.

That drop of a full point was the largest decrease in unemployment among the 369 metropolitan statistical areas in the nation, according to the labor department.

The unemployment rate in the Shoals had dropped to 4.3 percent by May 2005. About that time, Greg Aziz began looking around.

The chairman and chief executive officer of National Industries found his National Steel site in Hamilton, Ontario, needed to expand, but was landlocked.

Aziz had been interested in making a U.S. community the site of that new plant. He particularly was interested in the South.

National Steel consultants looked at about 150 sites. They talked with Alabama economic development officials, who mentioned the Shoals.

And the cooperation and foresight shown by the Shoals in recent years had gotten Montgomery's attention as they looked for an area that could handle such an enormous plant.

Local leaders started courting the industry. Soon, the Shoals was among a short list of possibilities, and was considered one of the more serious candidates among that small group.

Again, local leaders came together. There were several meetings. Refreshingly, those involved in the meetings -- community and elected officials -- didn't even seem to notice on which side of the river the meetings took place -- as long as they were together.

They took the bold step of recommending the half-cent sales tax, a move that seems to have been met much more positively among the community than was the gasoline tax of a few years earlier.

Fast forward to Wednesday, and the Shoals celebrated the coming of 1,800 jobs, which is expected to have an annual economic impact of at least $200 million on the area.

Looking to the future

In a way, the area also celebrated the future.

The unity and willingness to provide incentives has gotten noticed.

"We're about to start some really good solid growth, and we need to be prepared for that," Mauldin said. "(With the half-cent sales tax,) we have the luxury to plan for our growth and future.''

Humphrey Lee, president of Northwest-Shoals Community College and chairman of the Shoals Chamber of Commerce board, said diversity is a key aspect to the future.

"What we have to do is continue to train and educate our young people to provide a work force that will bring in diverse industries," Lee said.

He said the statement made through Wednesday's announcement is akin to a sports team winning a national championship.

"You win a national championship, and you're all of a sudden a national power," Lee said. "We made a statement that we're a major player."

Mauldin said the Shoals is on the radar screen.

"We have done things that nobody thought we could," he said. "Our elected leadership came together and did it. Our mayors and commissioners stood up and made it happen."

Wright said the funding from the tax base will feed upon the area's own success.

He said, for example, the additional jobs that are brought in through National Alabama Corp. will help increase the anticipated $6 million in revenue from the additional half-cent sales tax.

"Hopefully, we're investing that money so that more people will have more money to spend," Wright said. "Twenty years from now, we'll look back at this and say this was worth it. This is where it all turned around."

Gov. Bob Riley said National Alabama is an example of an "excellent return" on the investment of the sales tax.

The governor also commended the Shoals for its long-range approach of making it a permanent tax.

"What this does is put northwest Alabama on the level where it could be competitive anywhere," Riley said.

Importing jobs, not exporting

In the 1990s, the area encountered numerous stories of people who loved the area and wanted to stay, but had to move away to find work.

Mauldin sees that trend reversing itself. "We will soon start attracting people to the Shoals," he said. "People will start moving here for jobs."

The addition of industries such as National Alabama has the community talking.

Lawrence County resident Chad Wilson, the father of two small children, is among them.

"I believe this brings in new industry for young people," Wilson said. "It's so hard to find a job anymore, or at least one you can survive on."

He said costs are rising and job opportunities are "going down."

"But I believe this will create other jobs in surrounding areas," Wilson said.

Riley, who has seen some big industrial announcements during his tenure as governor, gives a word of warning to the Shoals, and in effect the state, to avoid allowing local feuds to stand in the way of the future.

"We don't need to let Friday night football be a deterrent from what we're doing," he said.

Wright said it also is important that the Shoals lives up to its promises for industries.

Future industrial recruits will talk with those companies to get their impression of having a site in the Shoals.

"The companies that come in now will be our best friends or worst enemies, depending how we handle this over the next five years," Wright said.

Bradford, a member of the original group that worked on the RSA project, said one of his fears during the past five years has been on following through with the area's commitment on the projects.

"The question has been, can we live up to what we said we would do," Bradford said. "If we didn't, there would be consequences. First, we would be risking our partnership with RSA. Secondly, if the word gets out that you don't deliver, you're ruined.

"It has been a challenge for our local governments, but having this economic fund will help us on National Alabama and in the future."

Bronner said the Shoals has the right combination -- unity and a funding base.

"You can't say, 'Oh God, send somebody to save me'," Bronner said. "You should say, 'Oh God, send somebody with money to help me and we'll contribute, too.' "

Bernie Delinski can be reached at 740-5739 or bernie.delinski@timesdaily.com.

Tom Smith can be reached at 740-5757 or tom.smith@timesdaily.com.