The federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, Gayle Manchin, toured Marshall County’s industrial sector Wednesday, September 21, and announced a grant of $740,331 supporting site development at Springs Industrial Park in Holly Springs. A 1,200 acre BNSF certified site in Springs Industrial Park is the only BNSF certified site in the northeastern United States.
ARC has already contributed $1 million toward site development on the north side of Highway 178, which helped build an access road into the park and get utility service to the site. “Marshall County has done an excellent job in planning and moving forward,” Manchin said. “They had a vision to push the vision forward – that’s what we look for, a good plan and working together. I am very impressed.” Manchin visited Marshall County as part of her tour of the 13 states in the Appalachian region.
Justin Hall, Executive Director of Marshall County Industrial Development Authority, welcomed visitors and provided some statistics for them. Marshall County IDA was created in 1984. The assessed value of the county increased by 75% over the last two years, making Marshall County the fastest growing county in Mississippi. Total investment in 2022 comes to $296 million. The total investment in industrial development to date comes to $1.3 billion with over 5,000 new jobs being created in the last five years. There are 800 new housing starts this year. ARC-funded projects total $10 million with currently, $4.2 million in ARC-supported projects under construction. TVA has built a $39 million switching site in the industrial north to support new and existing growth. Mr. Hall said, “ARC helped leverage our assets to work toward this goal, with local, state and federal dollars contributing to building the industrial park. Our existing industries are our number one salesmen.”