Multimillion-dollar company coming to Monticello
Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The large sign outside the former Harrell Nut Company building in the industrial park tells the story: SOLD – it proclaims in bold letters on the NAI Talcor realty sign.
The buyer, Alpha Foundations, is a Tallahassee-headquartered full-service foundation repair company that specializes in residential, commercial and industrial foundation services in north Florida and beyond.
Lisa Scully, marketing director for Alpha Foundations, confirmed the sale on Tuesday, April 23. She said her company purchased the building in late March for $1.5 million and plans to relocate its operation here by the end of the year.
“There are few renovations that we have to do first,” Scully said, adding that the reason for the move was that the company had outgrown its Tallahassee facility.
Did that mean Alpha Foundations would be headquartered in Jefferson County?
It did, Scully said, noting that the company employs a staff of about 100 people, some 60 or 70 who will be coming to this location.
She said the company also foresees additional hirings.
“We're steadily growing and open to adding more people,” Scully said.
She said Alpha Foundations looked forward to coming to Jefferson County
founded in 2002, Alpha Foundations specializes in leveling foundations, stabilizing structures and repairing cracked, bowing and buckling foundation walls, as well as repairing crawl spaces, seawalls and sinkholes. Its current service area extends from Jacksonville on Florida's east coast to Mobile, AL, on the west; and from the Macon, GA, area on the north to the Gainesville area in central Florida.
Commissioner Stephen Fulford, who with a few other key individuals informally leads the local economic development effort since the demise of the Economic Development Council, welcomed the addition, but conceded his group having no involvement in the decision.
“We had nothing to do with it,” Fulford said. “But we're glad to have them. It's a great addition to the industrial park. And it's good to see the Harrell Nut building finally being put into active use.”
The Harrell Nut Company building has been vacant since 2014. The Georgia company moved here with much fanfare in 2012, after constructing the building at the industrial park and promising to bring 50 full-time jobs upfront and growing that number to 180 at peak. Harrell Nut, however, never achieved its much-vaunted goal. Barely two years after coming here, it was acquired by Golden Peanut and Tree Nut, a Fortune 500 Company and a subsidiary of the Chicago-based Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM). Soon thereafter, Golden shuttered the operation.
Meanwhile, in other industrial park news, construction is moving forward rapidly on a building just west of what is to be the Alpha Foundations headquarters. The building under construction will be occupied by an electrical contracting company that is also relocating from Tallahassee.
By the terms of the agreement that the Jefferson County officials and the business owners signed in January 2019, the company must employ a minimum of 10 employees within 24 months and must remain viable for a minimum of 10 years or it forfeits the $40,000 incentive the county provided in the form of a two-acre parcel.