NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County’s chief industrial recruiter said the $3.3 million the state allocated to improve the old International Paper mill site will make it more attractive for new businesses to develop.
“This puts us back in a situation where the site is ready to be fully marketed,” Natchez Inc. Executive Director Chandler Russ told county supervisors Monday. “Y’all should be excited about it.”
Gov. Tate Reeves announced last week that Adams County is being awarded $3.29 million to prepare the old IP site, which is dubbed the Mississippi River Energy Complex. The money is for clearing and leveling 140 acres.
The grant was included in more than $110 million distributed throughout Mississippi for economic development, infrastructure upgrades, workforce development, tourism and conservation efforts.
Adams County’s award was the 2nd-largest of the 22 site-development grants allocated to the various counties.
The Adams County Board of Supervisors in 2013 bought the 478-acre IP property on Lower Woodville and Carthage Point roads for $9 million to be parceled out to new industries. Four small industries have been recruited to operate there. That includes Delta-Energy, which closed its tire-recycling operations last year and sold its fixtures to Phibro, which invests in low-carbon natural resources such as renewable gas, oil and feedstock.
The county board on Monday approved spending an extra $66,500 for changes needed in an ongoing project to improve the railroad connecting the site to the Mississippi River, where the Adams County port and other industrial sites are located. This is to make the railroad serviceable, Russ said.
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