For over 100 years the City
of Bessemer has been one of
Alabama’s leading
manufacturing and commerce
centers. Several of the
state’s oldest,
continually-operating firms
are located in Bessemer,
including U.S. Pipe and
Foundry and Southern Ductile
Casting Corporation.
But Bessemer is also home
to many service sector and
technology-based companies,
such as Logista and Trillion
Communications. UAB Medical
Center West, and the various
clinics and health-related
companies that service the
institution, form Bessemer’s
largest private sector
employment force. And in the
field of distribution,
Bessemer is proud to call
CVS Pharmacy, Federal
Express, and Piggly Wiggly
(Alabama Distributing
Company) corporate citizens.
Since the mid-1980s, the
Bessemer Development Board’s
various programs have been
utilized by these and other
companies to create an
ever-growing, diverse local
economy. Some of the
Bessemer Development Board’s
program results include:
*Assisting over 400
businesses with business
plan preparation, loan
processing and other
technical assistance;
*Booking over 100
business loans from its two
revolving loan funds, with a
default rate of less than
8%, helping to create and
retain over 3,000 jobs.
*Helping to grow the
city’s store of business
parks from just two in 1982
to fifteen in 2005, parks
totaling over 1,500 acres.
Seven of those business
parks are owned and managed
by the Board.
*The construction of
close to 50 metal industrial
buildings for lease to
for-profit entities,
representing a total of more
than 750,000 sq. ft. and a
capital investment of
approximately $12 million.
*The creation of two
business incubation
facilities - the 26,000 sq.
ft. Bessemer Business Center
(BBC) on the Bessemer campus
of Lawson State College, and
the 17,000 sq. ft. Downtown
Entrepreneurial Center (DEC)
in downtown Bessemer.
