Staff Photo by Adam Crisp/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Whitfield County, Ga., leaders on Tuesday sold 16 acres in the Carbondale Business Park. The $400,000 deal with XL Brands is the first sale in the park since the land was acquired a year ago. From left, County Commission Chairman Mike Babb, Development Authority Chairman Andy Walker, County Attorney Robert Smalley, and XL Brands Vice President Joe Tuttolomondo review contracts Tuesday.DALTON, Ga. — The first tenant in the sprawling Carbondale Business Park is getting a hefty discount to locate in the county-owned industrial site.
That deal was announced Tuesday when XL Brands, an adhesives company that already does business in the region, paid about $25,000 an acre to locate on a 16.3-acre parcel in the first phase of the property, which has a total of 184 acres.
That’s $6,000 per acre cheaper than what the county would have needed to break even on the project. In all, XL is paying $400,000 for its site, but county leaders would have needed to sell the property for $515,000 — about $31,000 per acre — to cover the initial land purchase.
The price says nothing for the cost of adding roads and utilities such as electricity, water and sewage, which can add significantly to development costs. Road construction won’t begin until March.
Whitfield County financed the $5.85 million property with long-term bonds. County Commission Chairman Mike Babb said the sale to XL is a “loss leader” and that future buyers will pay full price.
“This is what we call the anchor tenant,” Babb said minutes after signing the closing papers with XL Brands. “Being the first … they got a good price on the land, but no other incentives.”
Now, Babb said, the door is closed to other potential buyers seeking the same cut rate.
“This does not set the price for the property,” he said. “Being the first tenant in, they are accepting some risk, but they are also allowing us to say this is a viable park.”
Getting the first tenant appeared to be a hurdle that county developers were eager to surmount.
“Our commissioners understand the importance of getting the first tenant into the park, which is often very hard to do,” said Andy Walker, chairman of the Dalton-Whitfield County Joint Development Authority, the agency that markets the property and arranged for the sale of the land.
PLANS FOR GROWTH
XL Brands Vice President Joe Tuttolomondo said the company has plans to grow, add more employees and eventually double its presence in the Carbondale park.
ABOUT XL BRANDSAccording to its website, XL Brands makes environmentally friendly adhesives for the floor-covering market. Founded in 1978, the company now has three plants in Northwest Georgia and is a division of Dalton-based Textile Rubber and Chemical Co. Inc.
“It has great accessibility to the interstate,” Tuttolomondo said of Carbondale. “You’re talking just one traffic light between the site and [Interstate 75], and it’s exactly one mile north of our existing facility.”
Along with a current Whitfield plant, XL also has two Gordon County plants and plans to consolidate all three into the Carbondale site, he said.
Current plans call for a 122,000-square-foot building at the rear of the first phase of the business park, which is just off I-75’s exit 326. XL makes adhesives that are used in many types of floor covering. The materials also are marketed and sold to the public.
The new facility will allow XL to double its production over the next few years, Tuttlolomondo said. Unlike the rest of the flooring industry, XL hasn’t been slowed by the withering home construction market.
“Our business has grown double digits over each of the last six years,” he said. “Virtually all of the flooring manufacturers in Northwest Georgia, as well as those in Alabama and Ohio and elsewhere, are our customers.”