Madison Co., JEA to get money after past agreements found

Madison County Mayor A.J. Massey was alerted about something early this year that county commissioners like to hear, but it’s also unveiled an agreement regarding the industrial park on the western edge of Jackson and Madison County nearly 30 years ago that no one currently in office knew about.

The first thing that came across Massey’s desk was the fact that when Toyota bought the land it needed for its building, they agreed to pay $1 million for it, but they asked to wait 20 years before they paid it.

So as Madison County was the entity who owned the property and sold Toyota the land, which is about 66 acres, the County is about to get $1 million from Toyota.

In addition to that, Massey said that Jackson Energy Authority has also let him know about an agreement that was signed between the County and JEA a few years before Toyota decided to build in Jackson so the area would have infrastructure ready to go to bring an industrial park to that area.

“JEA struck an agreement with the County in 1997 that they would install infrastructure into that land,” Massey said in a meeting of the industrial park committee in February and again at the Republican caucus of the County Commission later that month. “The agreement was JEA would be reimbursed any sale of land out there, half of that purchase price would go back to JEA at a rate of between $3,500 per acre to $5,500 per acre, and back then that was about half of what property would sell for.

“That agreement was signed by JEA and [then-County Mayor J. Alexander Leech].”

Fast forward seven years, Toyota announced it was coming to Jackson and buying 200 acres from the County with infrastructure already installed. They struck an agreement with Jerry Gist, who was County Mayor then, to not pay for their land until March of 2024.

Because of the agreement with JEA, if and when Toyota writes its check to the County, the County will owe about $636,000 to JEA.

“There aren’t many people who were around then who are still around now,” Massey told the Commission. “But the ones who were around don’t recall this agreement at all.

“But we did some digging, and sure enough, all the documents proving there are agreements in place are there in our archives.”

Massey had conversations with Toyota leadership showing them the documents from the 2004 agreement. Toyota asked if they could delay their payment a couple years, and Massey said yes with approval from the County Commission.

So Toyota will pay their part to the County by the end of 2026.

But since the money from Toyota is coming in later, JEA has approved delaying the County’s payment to them until the first quarter of 2027.

The County’s budget committee approved the memorandum of understanding with both entities to ensure the moves during their meeting in June.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news