In the last three years, the Madison County Megasite has brought in over $700 million in investments with several large projects being won by the Madison County Economic Development Authority (MCEDA).
While MCEDA represents the entire county and not just the megasite, between Amazon’s location to the megasite and Clark Beverage’s recent announcement of their $100 million investment to the area, the megasite has brought millions of dollars to the county as a whole. While Clark Beverage is only bringing 30 new net jobs to the state, the entire investment is new to the county, so the county will see between 300 and 325 brand new jobs with the investment being between $100 and $125 million. Meanwhile, while Amazon had originally committed to bringing 1,000 jobs to the county with its warehouse, they currently have hired over 3,000 people – a large increase from their legal commitment.
Between water, sewer, gas, power, the water tank and well, roads and land purchase that went into the megasite, there was a little over $100 million investment by the county in the last three years. But in the same amount of time, companies have already invested over $700 million in the megasite and the MCEDA Executive Director Joey Deason said they expect that number to only continue to grow. This total investment also includes the substation, which was constructed with the county’s utility partner, Entergy, and has been instrumental in landing these big companies.
“Right now, MCEDA is probably seeing more activity than it has seen in the last five years,” Deason said. “I think a lot of that is driven by the fact that we’ve done all our due diligence, and we went out and bought the property. When you look around the country, there just aren’t a lot of megasites anymore out there. Specifically, there aren’t a lot of megasites that have power and electricity. With everything that’s going on overseas and Ukraine and inflation, power and electricity has become very valuable. Whether we were lucky,
blessed or just brilliant about having the substation constructed with our utility partner, Entergy, it is really playing out very well for our side.”
Deason said a lot of the hard work has already been done in Madison County when recruiting businesses to come into the area. The county already has great schools, great shopping, and a safe and secure community.
“When you add in the fact that we have now created Mississippi’s, if not the southeast region’s, best megasite that has excess capacity and electricity and power, it’s a perfect recipe,” Deason said. “I believe that is what’s driving a lot of this activity, and we’ve been very active. We’ve been out baiting consultants, meeting companies, doing our own marketing and that feeds into this success that we’ve had.”
Currently, MCEDA has 18 projects that they are competing on. The RFPs have been filled out and MCEDA is waiting for further direction as they move forward on the site visit stages with three of them, which means they’ve made it through the first round. The total investment for all 18 projects totals $7.25 billion.
“Over the last six years, MCEDA has won about 25 projects countywide,” Deason said. “These companies that we secured and won and brought to the county are paying about $14.5 million per year in ad valorem property tax, which is revenue to the county and for the school districts. So not only are they bringing in the jobs and those wages associated with the jobs, but they’re also paying taxes.”
Moving forward, Deason has two goals: to raise the average annual wages in Madison County and to diversify the economy. Currently, the county’s average annual wages is $50,000 when rounded up. His goal is to entice and encourage companies that pay better than $50,000 a year to come to Madison County. Secondly, he wants to diversify the companies coming in by bringing those such as food manufacturing, cold storage, advanced manufacturing and more.
“The future looks great,” Deason said. “We hope to have more advancements here in the very near future. Now, in the economic development world, that could be six months from now, but we do anticipate having more announcements here in the near future.”
