By Crystal McGough, Sponsored Content
Paine Industrial Park, managed by the Industrial Development Authority, is truly a hidden gem of Trussville. People traveling Highway 11 drive past the park every day, often not even noticing its existence. Sure, if you mention Amerex, most Trussvillians will know exactly where you are talking about. With its glamourous roadside building and beautiful fountain, it’s surely hard to miss. But what about the other 34 businesses taking up roughly 500 acres of the industrial park?
From high-tech companies, fabrication, engineering and welding to major business headquarters, warehousing and distribution, and contractors, the Paine Industrial Park is a hub, not only for high-quality products and services, but high-quality jobs. Behind it all, is Trussville’s Industrial Development Authority, a group of seven individuals who have teamed up to help industry in their city grow.
“Our main function is to bring jobs to Trussville,” IDA Chair David Fuller said. “Good jobs, skilled jobs in a lot of cases. The businesses in there provide services and products that everyone uses: car parts, switch gear for railroads. Under construction right now is a medical supply company that will distribute out of the park. Those are just examples, but it’s pretty diverse in what they do.”
The IDA’s goal is to develop “light industrial” jobs, which are typically smaller in-house and more focused on high quality products and services.
“Our businesses, other than Amerex and G. R. Manufacturing, average probably between a low of six and a high of about 45-50 employees,” Fuller said. “That’s the kind of the range we’re looking at. We want clean, high-tech industry, and I think that’s what we have in there now. Amerex, by far, is the largest, and G. R. Manufacturing the second largest with 100 employees.”
The IDA not only brings businesses into the Paine Industrial Park, but the Authority also helps to facilitate a community-type atmosphere between the businesses.
“We are attempting to develop and then support the business owners in the park,” Fuller said. “We do a lot of things to support the business owners any way that we can: communications, we have luncheons for the business owners to keep them informed of what’s going on around them and so that they can meet each other and know each other better.”
Even with the wide diversity of businesses within the park, Fuller said that it is important that the business owners know one another and have that professional relationship.
“They help each other; they bounce ideas off each other,” he said. “It gives them the opportunity to talk about a lot of things and share ideas.”
The IDA originally began as the Industrial Development Board, which was an official board under the City of Trussville.
By the end of 2021, however, the board became what is now known as the Industrial Development Authority.
“We made the change for future development,” Fuller said. “It gives the Authority the ability to possibly come outside of the industrial park or do some other things down the road. It gives us the ability to do things that we could not do when we were just a board under the city.”
Despite now being its own entity, the Authority continues to work very closely with the city. Trussville City Councilor Lisa Bright is the liaison between the Authority and the city council, and she attends every IDA meeting.
“She probably does as much day-to-day work as any of the members of the Authority and helps us a lot,” Fuller said. “She is our voice between the city council and the Authority.”
Trussville Mayor Buddy Choat also attends all of the IDA’s meetings, Fuller said.
“The mayor and city council support us very well,” he said. “That support is very much appreciated.”
With Fuller serving as the Chair of the Authority, other members include Vice Chair Dwight Turnipseed, Treasurer David Livingston, Alan Friday, Chase Wright, Chase McMaster and Jerry Little.
Chase McMaster is also the owner of Chase Bay, a distributor and manufacturer for high-performance auto parts in the industrial park.
“He’s the only one on the Authority that is also an owner in the park,” Fuller said.
New to the park, and currently under construction, is McKesson Corporation, a medical supply and pharmaceutical company. Two other businesses, Smith Roofing and DE General Contractors, have also recently purchased space in the park and will be under construction by the end of this year, Fuller said.
“We’re a little tight (on space) right now,” Fuller said. “There are seven vacant sites that are owned by individuals and not by the city. I think all of those will develop over time. We probably have four or five existing sites that need some site work that are available at this time.”
With the majority of the lots in the industrial park already occupied, Fuller said that the IDA has future hopes to expand onto 70 acres that formerly housed a Gold Kist chicken plant.
“The next project that we really need to be working on – we don’t have funding yet – but there’s an old Gold Kist chicken plant (which closed more than 20 years ago) in the back side of the park that was there before the park was there. The old chicken plant has not been demolished yet, but when it is, we can develop probably six to eight sites back there.”
The IDA meets on the last Thursday of every month at Trussville City Hall, beginning at 6 p.m.
“Everything is focused on what we can do to expand the industry in there,” Fuller said. “That’s the major focus of our meetings.”
The businesses of the Paine Industrial Park currently include: Alabama Fire College, State Farm, Emergency Pet Care, Blalock Building Company Inc., Iron City Machine – Engine Rebuilders, Dorsett Construction Inc., The Mercedes Doctor, Alabama Glass Crafters Inc., Net Connection Inc., SPOC Automation, McCullough Oil Company, AMEREX Corporation, Gerber Collision & Glass, H & E Equipment Services, KT Pacer (a Kentucky Trailer company), Robinson Fans Service & Equipment Company, G. R. Manufacturing Inc., Laempe Reich Corporation, Russo Corporation, Elkanah Contractors Inc., Universal Limited Inc., Acuren Inspection Inc., Chase Bays Inc., Jefferson County (sewer station), System Controls Inc., Smith Roofing LLC, Lighting Concepts, Empowering Technologies, Prestige Alarm & Specialty Products Inc., Anschutz North America LLC, DE General Contractors, The Dobbins Company, McKesson Corporation and New Generation Building & Design Inc.
- Jerry Little
- Trussville City Councilor Lisa Bright (Liaison for IDA)
- Dwight Turnispeed, IDA Vice Chair
- Alan Friday
- Chase McMaster
- Chase Wright
- David Fuller, IDA Chair
- David Livingston