Industries invest $108M, add 340 jobs in Dallas County in 2023

Dallas County economic development leaders brought in eight projects in 2023 that had a total capital investment of $108.7 million and promise of bringing 340 jobs over five years.

The projects range in industries from aviation to broadband, from automotive supplier to biodiesel.

Wayne Vardaman, Selma-Dallas County Economic Development Authority Executive Director, said it’s a team effort to bring new industry to the county’s four industrial parks.

Vardaman uses his decades long-built relationships and knowledge of tax abatements to attract companies to the county. He gets help from the Dallas County Commission, Probate Judge Jimmy Nunn, EDA board members and the Craig Field Industrial Board to secure the deal. The City of Selma and Mayor James Perkins Jr. is also a key player, offering incentives for projects, he said.

Since most of the deals in 2023 brought growth to Craig Field, that makes Craig Field Executive Director Jim Corrigan a key partner to help put the deals in motion.

The Selma Sun talked to Vardaman and Corrigan last week to get a wrap-up on successes in 2023 that will bring growth to 2024 as they become reality.

Of the $108.7 million in deals made last year, $43 million of the investments are being pumped into Craig Field and Industrial Park.

One of those new industries is Advanced ATC that is investing $4.7 million and bringing 119 jobs to Craig Field over the next five years thanks to a long relationship built between the owner Dan Cunningham and Vardaman. Vardaman says they met when they were pushing to get the Kuwaiti government to use Craig Field for training in 2017, which didn’t happen. But years later, Cunningham returned to locate his air traffic control school at Craig when he was ready to expand his business. 

Advanced ATC has also installed a control tower at Craig that allows the Selma airport to oversee air traffic themselves instead of using Montgomery’s airport. The new tower will also make the Selma airport more attractive to other aviation firms, Vardaman said.

In January 2023, Resicum International announced it was locating its business in a hangar at Craig Field, investing $1.3 million and adding 70 jobs to Selma’s roster. And they are expected to grow in 2024, Vardaman said.

Resicum, which has a flight and aviation maintenance school and also provides training to international militaries, has turned the armory into training space, has a special purpose range and is planning to renovate the golf course restaurant for fine dining on campus.

Corrigan said Resicum is hoping to train Black Belt youth to work in aviation through a Black Belt consortium that is being formed in partnership with Wallace Community College, Marion Military Institute and Craig Field. The colleges are looking at offering dual enrollment for area high school students so they get college credit for the aviation courses that will be taught at Craig, Corrigan said. 

They’re also planning an aviation summer camp and Aviation Day when students from area schools will be bused to Craig to see what aviation education options are there, Corrigan said.

Craig has plans for growth that start with a $150,000 grant to study and conduct engineering designs to renovate the oldest hangar there. Resicum’s plan is to use it for repair of large cargo planes that are more labor intensive. After the study is complete, Craig will apply for a grant to pay for the renovation, Corrigan said.

Vardaman said the hangar renovation is part of a plan to switch the focus to maintenance repair operations, but the plan needed a control tower first. Fellow Craig company Advanced ATC provided an answer to that need last year.

Another growing Craig Field Industrial Park company is Seoyon E-Hwa that announced an expansion plan that came with a $4.2 million investment in Dallas County in 2023. It will mean 60 more jobs at the plant that makes parts for an updated Santa Fe MX5A model. 

Vardaman brought the Tier 1 Hyundai supplier to Selma about 15 years ago and they started out with 70 to 80 jobs. They now have 500 jobs and are spending on installation of new equipment to increase work there, Vardaman said.

For Seoyon E-Hwa to make the new parts for the Santa Fe, HMMA is investing $24 million on a new tooling and dyes mold at the Seoyon facility.

There’s a future biodiesel project in the works in Craig Industrial Park with global commodities firm Harvestone out of Franklin, Tenn., which is leasing two silos for feed stock for fuel to test out success in Dallas County for more permanent work. The firm already has added 20 jobs in the county for the project but has not needed tax abatements or incentives yet.

Announced this fall, Coleclasher is relocating to Dallas County from Illinois after considering the location for five years, Vardaman said. The plastic piping company is investing $9 million and bringing 21 jobs that pay more than $20 an hour.

Yellowhammer Broadband project, led by George Henry out of Montevallo, will bring broadband to the Black Belt in a $45 million project that will start in Selma with purchase of all supplies needed happening in Selma, Vardaman said. They will hire 40 people for the installation of fiber optics that will stretch from Selma to Eutaw in Greene County.

Not all projects can be reported because of non-disclosure agreements, Vardaman said, and there is an eighth manufacturer that makes the 2023 investment list but is under that agreement. This existing Dallas County industry spent $10.5 million to expand and added 10 jobs to their roster. 

Vardaman said economic development is more successful when leaders work as a team to attract new businesses to the community.

“We’re more effective as a team and working together,” Vardaman said. “We use all our abilities to bring projects home.”

Corrigan said they are “high on Selma” and what it has to offer. 

“There are so many opportunities here, and we look forward to moving forward on many projects,” Corrigan.