County Securing Road Improvement Funds For Mercedes Expansion

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI) will get some additional help on the infrastructure front as part of its latest expansion, with the Tuscaloosa County Commission working to shore up funding for road improvements on Will Walker Road near M-Class Boulevard.

Tuscaloosa County Planning Director Farrington Snipes presented three separate resolutions pertaining to the project to the Commission during its regular meeting Tuesday. These dealt with submitting a formal funding request to the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), setting aside county funds to expedite the construction process and securing an engineering firm for design services.

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"This a project to reconstruct a thousand feet of Will Walker Road, extending east from M-Class Boulevard in advance of a new industry that is going to be opening up in about a year and initially going to hire 162 people and then ending up at, in three years, close to 400 new jobs total," he told Patch following the meeting.

The $53.6 million, 500,000-square-foot facility will serve as a storage and sequence facility for parts used in electric vehicles as the German automaker aims to raise its profile in the electric vehicle market. Even this week, MBUSI announced it will begin production of six all-electric models by the end of 2022, with two of them being assembled at the plant in Vance.

As part of the grant request to ADECA, the Commission was informed that the state had tentatively approved $258,000 to cover the cost of the road construction, while the county also agreed to kick in an additional $64,500 in local funds to expedite the process and avoid having to deal with a matching grant — the process of which can take longer and be more cumbersome than providing direct funding to the project.

"This is a time-sensitive project because they plan on having that plant open in the first of 2022 and everything has to be done," said District 2 Commissioner Jerry Tingle. "We’re well ahead of schedule and that’s why we’ve been pushing to get going ... to stay on target."

Commission Chair and Probate Judge Rob Robertson said he had been in contact with ADECA Director Kenneth W. Boswell and expressed his optimism for state-level support in terms of funding for the road improvements to keep pace with Mercedes' expansion.

"It’s a very key project for moving forward with the next generation of transportation with Mercedes, but we definitely appreciate [the state's] help," he said.

The Commission also approved a motion to form a tentative contract with Porter-Higginbotham Engineering, Inc., which will provide its design services through the completion of the project.

"A lot of work will have to be done as part of the environmental assessment," Snipes pointed out. "It is stated in the resolution that if for whatever reason the [ADECA] grant would be turned down by the state, the contract [with the engineering firm] would no longer be in place."

In making the project possible, the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority’s board of directors approved a tax abatement in September for MBUSI, which is good for 10 years’ worth of local ad valorem or sales and use taxes when building the new facility, coming out to an estimated savings of about $3.2 million for the company.

Past news reports also indicated that Mercedes would still be responsible for paying more than $1.5 million in education taxes for schools as part of the terms of the expansion.

Snipes expressed his excitement for the project moving forward, saying the new jobs will come available at a time when they are sorely needed due to the economic downturn brought by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"That’s what I enjoy most in my work ... helping people get jobs," he said.

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