GOLDEN TRIANGLE REGION, MS – Courtesy of the Dispatch
LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins recently spoke to the Rotary Club of Columbus to tell them about a number of major projects they are working on bringing to our area. They estimate a total combined investment impact of nearly $900 million and about 500 new jobs paying $50K or more.
One of these has been given the codename “Lettuce;” in the final stages of negotiation, it will be a $60 million, 150 job project, paying its new hires in the $75K range.
Another comes by way of Origis, a solar farm company. They are looking at putting two such farms in Lowndes County and another in Clay County to supply power to the TVA, to the tune of $550mil in local investment: “We’ve got enough solar being built in the Golden Triangle right now to equate to a small nuclear power plant,” Higgins said.
A proposed Lowndes County Port project may bring $100mil in investments and 100 jobs in the $50~60K range; it is hoped that more concrete information will be available by October.
Projects Renegade and Buckle look to bring in $125mil and $40 mil, respectively, with a total of about 220 jobs.
Clay County’s Project Coco is looking to bring in $10mil and 70 jobs — many of them in welding, starting at $21/hr.
“(Labor force) is our Achilles’ heel and that’s everybody’s Achilles’ heel,” Higgins said. “That’s the question we have to answer the most. That’s why we really don’t go after companies that don’t pay very well. We’ll point blank tell you if you’re paying cut-sew widget squidget wages, you’re probably not going to be able to succeed here. . . We don’t go after the 3,000-job deals, because quite frankly [the area] can’t supply the labor,” he added. “You’re lying to yourself when you say you are. Internally, we say our pressure point is 500 jobs. We think that’s the maximum amount we can do and successfully compete. Once we get one of those, there’s a period of time that you can’t get another one. You can’t get a 500-job in Oktibbeha, 500 in Lowndes and 500 in Clay (in a short timeframe). It just doesn’t work like that.”
Also, Higgins has also been in touch with medical marijuana companies — remember that the people of Mississippi voted to legalize it by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. This was put on hold by a technicality, but they feel that it won’t be too long before the situation is dealt with. The companies in question are looking at repurposing existing buildings in Columbus, West Point, Starkville, and Maben in anticipation of this possibility. Also, the TVA refuses to supply power to growhouses because the drug is currently outlawed at the Federal level; thus, alternative power sources are being considered.
All sorts of businesses are looking to coming to our area, bringing with them good-paying jobs and cold, hard cash…and THAT’S Good for Business!
Please click here for the original article: https://cdispatch.com/news/2021-09-01/higgins-touts-major-industrial-projects-coming-to-area/