Vision for airport includes serving, attracting industry

MUSCLE SHOALS - Matthew Hea has a vision for the Northwest Alabama Regional Airport.

The airport director, who is nearing a year on the job, wants to develop about 90 acres of airport property east of the terminal.

The property is being leased to a local farmer at the moment but could easily be transformed into industrial use.

Hea said he is working on the concept with the help of Shoals Economic Development Authority Executive Director Forrest Wright and officials with the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“What Forrest and I envision is some type of aviation-related industry,” Hea said.

The idea involves making the property available to industries that would require access to an airport and its facilities to do business, such as an air cargo operation, aircraft maintenance or refurbishing, Hea said.

Because the airport property is adjacent to Shoals Research Airpark, Hea is suggesting that the main road into the park, Counts Drive, be extended about 400 feet to the boundary of the airport’s property.

Hea said the connection from Shoals Research Airpark would allow the airport to apply for a Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Grant to begin developing infrastructure on the airport’s property.

The grant money could be used to build concrete aprons, water lines, electric lines and drainage facilities.

While there are about 90 acres of available property, Hea said there is realistically about 75 acres that could be used for new industries. Hea said one of these industries, even with a 100,000-square-foot hangar, would only need about five acres of property.

Hea said the FAA is interested in helping airports with economic development projects such as this. One thing that must happen before the airport can apply for a grant is the Counts Drive extension to the airport property.

Muscle Shoals Mayor David Bradford, who has also been involved in the project, said there is no money allocated to extend Counts Drive.

Bradford said there has been a plan on the books to build a new road from Counts Drive east to connect with Peachtree Street that will serve as a second access point for the industrial park.

Hea said the extension to airport property could be a simple gravel road, which would demonstrate the city’s willingness to connect the two properties.

“What we could do is dedicate a right-of-way and actually plat it,” Bradford said.

Bradford agrees that tying the industrial park to the airport would allow Hea and SEDA to start recruiting aviation-related industries.

Funding the project, however, can be a difficult part of the equation.

Muscle Shoals is still obligated to match grant funds it received to develop Shoals Research Airpark. The city has an option it would like to exercise on 111.54 acres to the east of the industrial park, which would increase the size of the park to about 500 acres, Bradford said.

The mayor said it is easier to secure grant money if an industry has indicated a desire to build a facility.

Grant funds to develop Shoals Research Airpark were much easier to get once North American Lighting announced it was building a facility in the park. North American supplies lighting products to the auto industry.

“You need a project associated with (an industrial site) to obtain funding sometimes,” Bradford said.

Bradford said it is possible the projects could be eligible for money being set aside for local economic development through the Shoals Industrial Development Committee, the most visible being the National Alabama railcar plant that is under construction in Barton Riverfront Industrial Park in Colbert County.

Hea said officials also want to capitalize on a Norfolk Southern Railway spur that runs across the back of the airport’s property. The idea is to create a turnout that would lead to another spur to serve Shoals Research Airpark and conceivably customers at the proposed airport industrial area. The rail service would be just one more way to attract business.

Wright could not be contacted because he was in Japan attending a conference that included discussion of exactly what he and the airport director hope can happen at the airport.

Hea said he realizes this is going to be a long-term project.

“This is 10 years down the road,” he said. “We’re trying to cooperate with each other for the betterment of the community.”

Russ Corey can be reached at 740-5738 or russ.corey@TimesDaily.com.