“Build it and they will come” didn’t work out so well with a proposed workforce housing area in Pike County’s new Gateway Industrial Park.
Instead, supervisors’ field of dreams is a field of mud.
On Friday, supervisors said they will buy back 40 acres intended to hold a workforce housing complex after the developer failed to live up to his side of the contract.
Supervisors authorized board attorney Wayne Dowdy to send a letter to the attorney for Aries Building Systems expressing the county’s intention to buy back the acreage for the $480,000 purchase price, as stipulated in the contract.
Aries was supposed to have a minimum 120 beds and 10 employees in place by this past Thursday. Instead it had eight mobile homes on a sea of mud.
“We don’t feel like they complied,” said Supervisor Chuck Lambert.
Meanwhile, Dowdy said the City of McComb will file a lawsuit in chancery court seeking removal of the mobile homes on the property.
Dowdy, who represents both the city and the county, said the city had tried unsuccessfully to get Aries to remove the units.
“They sent several cease-and-desist letters to Aries that they were violating the city’s zoning law,” Dowdy said.
Supervisors Gary Honea and Luke Brewer and two economic development district officials met at the site on Jan. 21 with an Aries representative who at first didn’t want to meet, Honea said.
When city zoning administrator Walter Temple arrived, “he asked Walter to leave,” Honea said.
Honea said he almost got stuck in the site’s red clay.
“The units are built on a skid where they can be sucked up on a low-boy,” he said. “They are very temporary and very movable.”
According to Dowdy’s letter, “There is no power, water or sewer connected to any of the storage shed-type facilities. There are no appliances in place to supply services to occupants. There is no running water, sewer to any of the structures.
“The trailer-type buildings are not habitable. Aries Building Systems has not fulfilled its obligation to have a workforce housing facility on the tract of property purchased from Pike County. The county intends to exercise its option to purchase the property from Aries Building Systems LLC for the agreed-upon consideration of $480,000.”
The letter is addressed to attorney Kyle L. Dickson of Murray/Lobb LLC in Houston, Texas. Attempts to contact Dickson or anyone from Aries on Friday were unsuccessful.
Supervisors originally approved plans for the workforce housing during what looked like a coming boom in Tuscaloosa Marine Shale oil and gas drilling. But falling oil prices brought a halt to those and many other area plans for development.
“I’m very disappointed that Aries didn’t fulfill their obligations,” Lambert said. “I realize the price of oil went down. They went into this knowing that was a possibility.”
He said supervisors tried to work with Aries but the company wouldn’t cooperate. “It’s clear they’ve not lived up to the bargain,” he said.
The property lies on the north end of the industrial park that stretches from Wardlaw to Airport-Fernwood road.
“It’ll be included with the rest of the industrial park and we’ll go back and market it in a different direction,” Lambert said, noting the site has access to water and sewer lines. “It’s ready to go.”
Aries is under fire from other directions as well. In May 2015, CMS Consultants filed a breach of contract lawsuit against the company in Pike County Chancery Court seeking $814,845.
And in August, contractor Justin Robinson filed suit against Aries, CMS Consultants and John Does 1-2 in Pike County Court seeking enforcement of a $13,130 construction lien.
