At Monday night’s meeting of the Rockdale Municipal Development District (MDD) Economic Director Jim Gibson told the board that he had spoken to the new owners of the Alcoa property, SLR Property LP and found out information that he and the board were unaware of before his discussion.
Gibson and the board were thinking of zoning the 160-acre property the MDD owns on FM 487 as residential instead of commercial because they didn’t want to compete against SLR Property LP for industrial tenants.
However, after Gibson’s discussion he found out that the owners of the Alcoa property are not interested in any tenant who will need a building less than 250,000 square feet. This gives the MDD a new buyer/tenant pool they didn’t realize they had.
At the previous month’s MDD meeting they had tried to come up with a solid reason for zoning the property either commercial or residential, but there wasn’t a firm reason for making the decision one way or the other.
One option was to sell the property and use the proceeds to pay off debt and buy another property for industrial use in a better location. To that end, the board searched for a real estate agent to help them market the property.
Two local Realtors and three out-of-town Realtors put their names in the hat, but because of the new revelations about the Alcoa property, the board decided to take this matter up at January’s meeting.
Also discussed on Monday was a parks map for the East side of Rockdale. A company called White Oak Studios, a landscape architecture company out of Houston, has been engaged to draw up plans and offer suggestions for everything from Bridge Park to Fair Park.
Gibson also drafted a new incentive policy for enticing new business to Rockdale with information about tax abatements and general information for potential businesses. This draft is just about policy with no specifics for different businesses. But it is a good thing to have to show new businesses.
The MDD building downtown has some plumbing issues that need to be fixed and Gibson told the board that creating some walls and offices would be ideal. The board had been considering selling the building and moving elsewhere but there is a very small selection of move-in ready properties in Rockdale available.
A short workshop was held by MDD board president Allan Miller discussing several things he had questions about in his new role.
Gibson and administrative assistant, Shanna Johnson, have had a new phone system installed in the MDD building and they say it is running smoothly so far. The new system gives more options for times when neither employee is in the office downtown.
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