Officials move forward on spec building

By Patrick Johnston

Published: June 23, 2008

The City of Eufaula is closer to having a spec building to show industrial prospects.
The city’s industrial development board voted late Wednesday morning to purchase a building package from American Buildings that, in a few months, should be a 40,000-square foot spec building. The 200 foot by 200 foot-building will include 24-foot high eaves. Financing for the building, which will cost an estimated $1 million for materials and construction, will come through a $197,000 interest-free loan from Alabama Power and one or more local banks. Board members also voted last week to construct the building adjacent to the “Clyde Earnest building” at the Lakepoint Industrial Park. They originally had planned to construct the building adjacent to the Hyundai Polytech building across the street.
Board members also discussed the process for obtaining bids from contractors interested in the project. They voted to let board chairman Roy Crow be in charge of obtaining quotes.
City officials hope the building will increase the city’s chances of landing a new industry and creating several dozen new jobs in the area.
Crow and Jim Bradley of the Eufaula-Barbour County Chamber of Commerce recently spoke at a recent council work session about the need for a spec building. Crow said the city is now at a disadvantage because there is not a spec building currently available in the city.
“We’ve lost the opportunity to have a prospect,” Crow said. “We are out of business from a spec building standpoint.”
The city has enjoyed success luring industries when a spec building was available. Hyundai Polytech in the Lakepoint Industrial Park located in a spec building nearly three years ago.
Crow said at the meeting a spec building would give Eufaula a significant advantage over most south Alabama cities. There are only a handful of cities that have spec buildings or are in the process of building them.
“It would put us in the ball game,” Crow said. “We would have a better number of prospects to visit the city than we’ve had in the past.”