Republic file photo Aerial photo of former Walesboro airport property taken in 2012, when discussions about developing it for a commerce park grew serious. Woodside Industrial Park, which has its first tenant open in 1981, can be seen in the foreground.
The Columbus Redevelopment Commission is providing tax-increment-financing funds to help Columbus Municipal Airport select a group to create a new masterplan for the Walesboro airport site, south of Columbus.
The city is paying the Administrative Resources association (ARa) an amount not to exceed $5,900 from the central TIF district for the project. Redevelopment commission member Trena Carter recused herself because she works as associate director for ARa.
“I’m certain many of us that have been sitting around the same table for a lot of years know the development area around Walesboro and the significant issues we’ve had over it,” Airport Director Brian Payne said. “… I came here in 2012, I’d say it was one of the first things that was on the plate back then, because of the flooding and the other issues that we had down in that area.”
The redevelopment commission hired Indianapolis-based HWC Engineering in 2015 to develop the last masterplan for the property. At the time, the engineering firm told city officials it would cost $45 million to develop the property over five phases, and identified 509 acres of developable land at full build-out.
There were request for proposals (RFP) sent out to potentially develop the land in 2015 and most recently in June of 2020, but nothing ended up coming from it.
The Columbus Municipal Airport leases most of the 740-acre property as farmland — it has also leased for manufacturing purposes and there are a number of test tracks used by local companies including Cummins, Inc. and Faurecia.
“I think this is very valuable to the City of Columbus as a whole, not just the airport, but really where are we going to look at for additional industrial development,” Payne said. “We own, as the airport, over 700 acres — at least 500 of that developable with the right plans, and we just need those right plans.”
Payne said one element would likely be a realignment of County Road 175W and noted there’s ample interest among various city departments in seeing another masterplan for the area.
“We have an entire city-wide infrastructure team that are looking at where we are going to continue to develop as a community,” he said.
Director of Redevelopment Heather Pope said the Walesboro area is crucial for further city economic development.
“What properties do we have available with the least amount of restrictions on them? There are very few,” Pope said. “And what we’re trying to do here is create more developable property for those larger industries that can help us grow.”
Payne said they expect to have an RFP put together “over the course of the next three months.”
