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WEST POINT — At its Thursday meeting, the West Point Rotary Club received an update from Valley Mayor Leonard Riley on what’s been going on in Valley in recent times.

The city is in the best financial shape it has been in in Valley’s 45-year history, and it owns 1,900 acres of land ideal for commercial or residential development.

After having served for 20 years as the Chambers County School System’s superintendent of education, Riley ran for and was elected mayor of Valley in 2012. The school system was in financial trouble when he became superintendent in 1991. The city was in similar trouble when he was elected mayor 21 years later.

“We couldn’t make payroll and we owed $300,000,” he said. “We spent $14,000 to get a credit rating.”

The local area was reeling from the final shutdown of the textile industry in Chambers County. In February 2009, the county’s unemployment rate topped 22 percent.

Things are much better now. The unemployment rate is holding steady at around three percent, and Valley is seeing some sustained growth in both the commercial and residential areas. Riley has been a key player in this turnaround. The city council, the Chambers County Development Authority (CCDA) and the Chambers County Commission have also had important roles in this. Right next door, the City of West Point has been on a growth trend, too.

“When I became mayor, we had lots of vacant land lying around us,” Riley said. “We thought that if we could acquire it we could control its development.”

The first step in getting land for this purpose was from WestPoint Home, the successor company of what had been West Point Manufacturing, WestPoint Pepperell and WestPoint Stevens. It was then under the control of bankruptcy king Carl Ichan, who’s known for selling property he can’t use.

“We brought 417 acres from them,” Riley said. “They offered us Lanier-Carter Mill but they wanted $7 million of it and that was too much for us at the time. I had to deal with a New York City lawyer on this property sale, and that was an experience for me. Understanding what he was saying was not easy.”

The 400-acre-plus site is right off I-85 and now forms the bulk of Valley Industrial Park, which has a large warehouse for WestRock and a couple of businesses facing the Interstate, Four Star Freightliner and the Four Star Auto Auction.

The next step in the city’s land acquisition involved the 300-acre Burney property off Fob James Drive. This site is now being repurposed for commercial and residential development. A Beef O’Brady’s restaurant will be coming to this site. “It will be the biggest restaurant in the area,” Riley said. It will sit across a lake from a residential development. On the opposite site of the Burney property, on 55th Street, new offices for Brumfield Electrical and Communications, Inc. (BEC) and Riggers, Fabricators and Millwrights (RFM) are being built. An Atlanta-area developer owns property on Fob James and has plans for a strip mall development. “We have eight or nine new businesses coming to Fob James Drive,” Riley said.

Among these new businesses will be a Scooter’s Coffee and a UPS store. “We are working on getting a new grocery store,” Riley said.

The next major purchase was off Fairfax Bypass south of the industrial park. The Combs property is where the Camellia Crossing subdivision is being developed. Another 400-acre site was purchased between 55th and the Interstate, and a similar-sized piece of property between old Shawmut airport and EAMC-Lanier Hospital is owned by the city. It was purchased from the Scott family and is set for residential development.

The city’s most recent purchase is linked to this. Three lots on Highway 29 between Chambley’s and the Merritt Building present an opportunity to build an access road from Highway 29 to a new housing development near the river. This would take traffic off 30th Street in Shawmut, where early stages of this new housing are taking place. A total of 17 new homes have been built on the portion of 30th that branches away from 12th Avenue.

The mayor is really proud of the fact the city has been able to clear the land it has purchased with its own equipment. The city’s Public Works Department has the equipment and personnel to clear 1,900 acres for redevelopment. They have also built roads in the industrial park, to Four Star Freightliner and on the Burney site.

Any water and sewer needs on these properties are provided by the East Alabama Water, Sewer and Fire Protection District.

“Nobody would come here and put in water and sewerage,” Riley said. “We’ve had to do that to get them to come here.”

The city’s biggest success story in getting new industry is John Soules Foods, which is located on the south side of town in what was once a WestPoint Stevens distribution building. The 266,000-square-foot building has been expanded and extensively modified to house a state-of-the-art chicken processing plant. An estimated 600 people are employed there now. That number could rise to more than 800 people when more processing lines are added.

Getting Chick-fil-A to come here is another success story. The CCDA was much involved in this, as it was with John Soules Foods. The city spent over $100,000 in improvements to 33rd Street and in clearing a lot next to Bradshaw Library. “We will get that back in sales taxes their first year here,” Riley said.

As the city is in transition to a new future, there remains a pressing need to remove old housing that cannot be renovated. “We still have lots of old mill houses that are in really bad condition,” Riley said. “We have torn down over 320 houses in the last ten years. In some cases, we put a lien on the property to get back the cost of doing this.”

Riley is looking forward to a new city park coming to the Fairfax community. A $1.5 million development is being looked at, and it will be developed on the former site of Fairfax Mill. It will include walking trails, a pavilion, dog park and other amenities. Some new benches have already gone in. The Charter Foundation has provided a $30,000 grant to cover architectural plans for the new site.

In the heart of the city, the Village Square Shopping Center has taken on a like-new look with a major expansion and a repaved parking lot. The expansion features a new Marshall’s store and a Five Below. A new Pet Sense will be located there in the future.

In the way of a new industry, the city could be getting a European distribution center. This will be a huge get for someone, and Valley is in the running. The building will be over one million square feet in size. Six years ago, the city made the final two for a German distribution center that went to Cartersville, Georgia. This was a $100 million project that now employs 250 people. Lidl is a discount grocery business operating in the eastern U.S.

“We’ve been in the top two or three on several projects,” Riley said. “The European company now looking at us will be a billion-dollar project. If they come here, we will have a great situation in terms of local employment. The CCDA and our local leaders are in agreement that we want companies with good-paying jobs to come here.”

Riley said it’s been good for the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) to have been working on road projects in the local area. Highway 29 from the bridge at Givorns on the south end of town has been resurfaced to the entrance at Walmart. Within the next two years, the portion of 29 from Walmart to the state line is set for some work. Exit 79 on I-85 got some major work in the past year and the portion of I-85 from the state line past the Alabama Welcome Center has gotten some new LED lighting for the nighttime hours.