The Tennessee Valley Authority on Friday sold a 900-acre portion of the site where the federal utility began in 1933 as TVA continues to scale back its operations and holdings in response to a leaner mission and budget.
A Knoxville-based investment group, organized as a real estate limited partnership known as Muscle Shoals Holdings LLC, paid $5 million, or $5,556 per acre, to acquire part of Muscle Shoals Reservation property in northwest Alabama near the Wilson Dam where TVA was headquartered when it was first created by President Franklin Roosevelt.
The land near the Tennessee River was once used for munitions production during both World War I and World War II and later for fertilizer research. But the TVA board declared the property surplus in 2012 after TVA ended its federally funded programs in 1999 and phased out much of its natural resources projects once housed on the property.
TVA sold 12 acres of the site in 2015, part of which was purchased by the TVA Community Credit Union.
The winning bidders for the 900 acres sold Friday declined to discuss their plans, according to Knoxville attorney Water Winchester, who represented the group.