Ribbon Cutting A Go For 500 Eventual Jobs

October 21, 2010

A symbolic ribbon is now set to be cut Friday for a group of new industries planned for Century that could mean up to 500 jobs, breathing life back into the old Alger-Sullivan Lumber complex that has sat idle for a number of years.

By Friday afternoon, Century Lumber and Land, LLC plans to go to work on renovating a portion of the old lumber mill site for new industries and new jobs.

The ribbon cutting was first tentatively set for September 18, then was delayed until October 16. Then, company officials have delayed the ribbon cutting a third time until Friday while they worked to finalize financing for their ventures.

Century Lumber and Land, LLC plans to join Railmark Holdings and Milton Timber to announce a total of five ventures slated for Century.

The companies will, over a course of time, be in the business of:

  • treating railroad crossties
  • dry kiln treating domestic lumber for the building industry
  • building and selling lumber kilns
  • repairing freight railcars, railroad track and maintenance
  • processing and marketing Paulownia trees as biomass fuel and wood products

In addition, officials have announced that a methane generation plant operated by Integrated Energy Partners of Orlando may locate at the Century complex. IEP had previously announced plans to locate in Jay, but the company was unable to persuade the Santa Rosa County Commission to back an industrial bond issue. IEP has asked the Century Town Council for a memorandum backing a bond issue, but that council has referred the request to their attorney for review.

Century Lumber and Land unofficially announced the ventures at a September 2 meeting of the Century Chamber of Commerce. Century Lumber and Land  Manager Jim Craft said at that meeting that the operations would eventually employee 300 to 500 people within a 36 to 42 month period.

The 38 acre Alger-Sullivan property was last sold in early 2006 to DMT Holdings, LLC in Navarre, according to the Escambia County Property Appraiser’s online records. The facility includes five buildings totaling just over 300,000 square feet, according to the property appraiser. The buildings on the property range in age from 11 to 54 years,with the largest 160,150 square foot building constructed in 1972.

NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.

Comments

2 Responses to “Ribbon Cutting A Go For 500 Eventual Jobs”

  1. Oversight on October 21st, 2010 10:03 am

    I haven’t been by Front Street in awhile… Is there any signs of business activity there?

  2. Big Al on October 21st, 2010 4:09 am

    Talk, Talk, Talk. When do we eat?

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under Archive