Etowah County has been buying megasite land since 2008. It still does not have a company.

GADSDEN, AL – Etowah County commissioners are considering another $20,000 to support the NEAR Megasite, this time for half an acre of land to hold a sewer lift station. It is the newest line in a bill the county started running up in 2008. Eighteen years and millions of public dollars later, the site still has no tenant.

The county has never hidden the spending. Each purchase, grant and contract has come through a public meeting with a number attached. What has not been added up in one place is the total, or how long commissioners were told it would take.

They were told early. And one of them said out loud that he was not sure taxpayers would wait.

How did this start?

In 2008 the commission voted to buy its first tract at Little Canoe Creek, about 200 acres between Interstate 59 and U.S. Highway 11.

The timing was not an accident. Republic Steel had closed operations in Etowah County, and thousands of jobs that paid well and carried benefits went with it. Commissioners wanted land ready in case a large manufacturer ever came looking.

The county kept buying. The site grew past 900 acres, then past 1,100.

By the time the county was still about 100 acres short of the 1,000-acre minimum a megasite requires, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Dollar put the land spending at roughly $2.6 million. That figure is close to a decade old now.

What were commissioners told it would cost?

Far more than the land.

Mike McCain, then executive director of the Gadsden-Etowah County Industrial Development Authority, told the commission in a work session that developing the property as a megasite would take at least $21 million. Marketing it would take about $2.26 million more up front.

He also told them how the state money works. Alabama does not pay until a company commits. Grants are tied to jobs created. District 1 Commissioner Joey Statum summarized it as the state wanting a bird in hand first.

Commission Chairman Larry Payne said he was troubled by the unknowns, both the size of any return and how long it would take. He noted that industrial sites are often handed over at almost no cost and then given ten years of tax abatements, and he questioned whether Etowah County taxpayers would want to wait that long or where the money would come from.

Statum took the other side. He called it an investment his grandchildren would see a return on.

What has the county spent since?

The land bill kept growing after that $2.6 million.

In February 2025 the commission moved $918,934 out of fund balance into industrial development accounts. Of that, $902,634 bought 160 more acres and $16,300 covered initial engineering on an Interstate 59 interchange. The purchase pushed the site to 1,250 acres. The money came from American Rescue Plan Act funds, which the county had routed through fund balance to meet a federal deadline. Chief Administrative Officer Shane Ellison said the county used the federal money to reimburse itself.

This August, commissioners authorized pursuing $194,500 in state SEEDS funding for environmental and site assessments on newly acquired acreage. That package carries an $83,246 county match.

Ellison told GadsdenThrive the county already owns the land it wants to study, and that no company is driving the expansion. A 160-acre tract came from the Estate of Ellen Stewart and a 30-acre tract from William Lucas. The purchase prices for those two tracts have not been made public.

The parcel on Tuesday’s agenda would add $20,000 more. It covers about half an acre at Pleasant Valley Road and Steele Station Road, and the stated purpose is an intermediate sewer lift station serving the site.

Counting only what is documented, county money on land and matches alone already exceeds $3.6 million.

How much has been spent in total?

More than the county has put in, because Etowah County is not the only one paying.

ABC 33/40 reported last October that roughly $50 million had gone into the site from the Alabama Department of Commerce, the State Industrial Development Authority, Rainbow City, Norfolk Southern and the county combined.

Norfolk Southern funded a $2.7 million grading project through the state’s Growing Alabama Credit program, creating a pad-ready rail-served area, relocating gas lines and adding a rail crossing. Rainbow City contributed $1 million in federal relief money toward interchange design. The county has bid out an elevated water tower and water and sewer lines running under I-59.

What does the county have to show for it?

A finished site and no occupant.

Little Canoe Creek was certified an Alabama AdvantageSite in 2018, meaning the due diligence a site consultant expects has been completed. The property has graded pads, a water tower, water and sewer, rail access on a Norfolk Southern mainline and an interchange in engineering.

What it does not have is a company.

That is not the same as having nothing. A certified, pad-ready 1,250-acre site is a real asset, and county officials have consistently argued it cannot be sold until it is ready. The question the record raises is not whether the county built something. It is how long a county of about 103,000 people carries the cost before the return McCain described arrives.

Does the county ever get its money back?

Possibly, but only if a company shows up.

Under a 2022 memorandum of understanding, Rainbow City agreed to buy the project from Etowah County once an industry commits to the site, with a provision reimbursing the county for its investment. Until then, the county owns and markets the property.

That agreement is worth understanding plainly. The reimbursement is real, and it is conditional. No tenant means no purchase, and no purchase means no reimbursement.

What is still unknown?

Most of the early record.

The county has not made public the sellers or prices for the tracts bought between 2008 and 2016, the period that produced the bulk of the site. It has not said what the full lift station will cost, what sewer capacity it adds or when it would be built. And it has not published a running total of what has been spent at the site since the first purchase.

GadsdenThrive will report the commission’s action on the lift station parcel, and a fuller accounting, as those records become available.

Frequently asked questions

When did Etowah County start buying megasite land?

In 2008, beginning with about 200 acres at Little Canoe Creek between I-59 and U.S. 11.

How big is the site now?

About 1,250 acres, after a 160-acre purchase completed in early 2025.

How much county money has gone into it?

Land spending was put at roughly $2.6 million by the county’s CFO nearly a decade ago. Documented county spending since, including $902,634 for 160 acres and an $83,246 study match, pushes the total past $3.6 million.

Is a company coming?

None has been announced. The county’s chief administrative officer said no company is driving the recent expansion.

Who else has paid?

The Alabama Department of Commerce, the State Industrial Development Authority, Rainbow City and Norfolk Southern, in addition to the county.

What is an AdvantageSite?

A state certification indicating a property has completed the due diligence industrial prospects expect. Little Canoe Creek received it in 2018.

Related coverage: Etowah County weighs $194,500 study of a 190-acre addition to the NEAR Megasite and what was on Tuesday’s commission agenda.

Sources

Etowah County Commission agenda, Sept. 1, 2026; Gadsden Times reporting republished by the Gadsden-Etowah County Industrial Development Authority; alabamamegasite.com; WBRC; ABC 33/40; Made in Alabama; Yellowhammer News; Gadsden Messenger; GadsdenThrive interviews with Shane Ellison.