Bronner credits area with success

Florence - Business leaders, former and current politicians and community members joined in a celebration of RSA's five year investment in the Shoals with the Retirement System of Alabama's CEO David Bronner.

"You have probably progressed more in five years than any other area that I know of in the history of Alabama," Bronner said at a luncheon Thursday at the Marriott Shoals Conference Center, one of several Shoals projects to receive RSA funding.

"When we started five, six years ago, the four mayors didn't see each other on a regular basis; county commissions didn't see (each other) on a regular basis. They worked together. Those two county commissions and those four mayors deserve all the credit," Bronner said.

Bronner spoke for 15 minutes and received two standing ovations at the luncheon hosted by the Shoals Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Bank Independent and the Marriott Shoals Hotel and Conference Center.

Bronner said the Shoals Marriott and the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail acted as catalysts to attract projects to the Shoals such as North American Lighting, SCA Tissue and Walgreens Health Initiative.

Several in the audience agreed. "Without RSA, we would not have accomplished any of this," Muscle Shoals Mayor David Bradford said.

"Bronner believed in us before we believed in ourselves," said Macke Maudlin, president of Bank Independent.

Most recently, RSA committed up to $350 million in funding for National Alabama Corp., a 1,800-employee railcar plant that broke ground in September.

"In my opinion, National Alabama has started a new (movement)," Bronner said. "It's a new one because it introduces a whole new industry to the state of Alabama."

Bronner is no stranger to introducing new ideas to the Shoals.

"(Bronner) truly has been a catalyst for this area," said David Jones, chairman-elect for the Shoals Chamber of Commerce. "He has provided the incentive, the motivation for us to really make big changes in how we operate and how we view ourselves."

The number of views visitors get of the Shoals has increased from RSA's investment. In September 2007, the 100,000th guest checked in at the Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa, which opened in 2005. Hotel spokesman Bill Lang said the hotel is fully booked for the next 14 days.

The Fighting Joe and the Schoolmaster courses at the Robert Trent Jones golf trail have had more than 100,000 rounds from people from all 50 states and from at least 20 countries, Bronner said.

Before RSA's involvement, the conference center hosted as many conferences in a year's span as it now hosts in six weeks, Bronner said.

Bronner was presented with an oil painting of the Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa by Shoals artist Gerald Bohannon, who spent four and half months on the piece. The Shoals Chamber of Commerce also honored Bronner as an official ambassador-at-large for the Shoals area.

So what did Bronner see in the Shoals years ago that resulted in RSA's investment of over half a billion dollars?

"People and beauty," Bronner said, "meaning good people that work hard in a beautiful place in the world."

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728.