Omnova Facility Bought By Millner & Associates

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) -Omnova’s Columbus facility may once again be buzzing with activity. An asset management firm out St. Louis has purchased the plant, and could invest more than 10 million dollars over the long haul. That could lead to hundreds of new jobs and anchor a revitalization of the Highway 69 industrial area.

92 acres and 7 hundred thousand square feet. Those massive dimensions will soon be used to describe the “Columbus Business Center”. Investor Stuart B. Millner has big plans and high hopes.

“Within 6 months to a year this property will not look like what it looks like now, it’ll look entirely different.inside more changes than the outside right, the inside needs to be completely gutted from the stand point of taking all the machinery and equipment out of there,” said Stuart Millner.

Millner’s approach includes turning the warehouse and office space into a multi tenant industrial center.

“As far as jobs, I would say eventually we’ll end up with probably a good 2 to 3 hundred new jobs which would be located in this facility after it’s developed,” added Millner.

Developers say gutting the facility and adding new construction will cost somewhere near 10 million dollars and the newly refurbished building will house 10 to 12 tenants.

“One and a half maybe to get it fully developed and if we hit enough interest at the ground level of new construction that we’re talking about we would start that as soon as we get the financing in place to do it,” said Millner.

Millner says the entire building will need to be reconfigured for independent tenants. That involves replacing electrical, lighting, and heating and cooling systems. The Columbus Lowndes Development Link has begun taking interested business leaders on a tour. The facility’s potential is obvious.

“It will enable use to bring additional industries in, the plans that the company has will greatly enhance that property. We’re looking for main factories mainly there can be warehousing out there, a lot of different needs can be met there,” said Vice President of Link, Brenda Lathan.

And different needs include warehouse storage, service and delivery industries and even a manufacturing facility. Phase one of converting the building is already underway and should be completed in a couple of weeks.

And even though the old Omnova facility has been bought, they haven’t left all together. Omnova’s distribution center is the project’s first tenant.