As the bustling traffic of a Tuesday morning on Broad Street rattled past, some of Selma’s biggest movers and shakers stood on the front steps of Selma’s City Hall to announce an important economic expansion for the city.

The former Honda All-Lock building, which at one time was an environmental hazard, is now once again usable and has been leased to Meadowcraft for a business expansion that could bring 125 new jobs to Selma. Combined with 75 jobs that have already been created at the old facility, that means 200 new jobs for Selma.

“Meadowcraft Inc.’s prior experience in the Selma area and the tremendous cooperative spirit displayed by Mayor (James) Perkins, City Attorney Jimmy Nunn, the Selma City Council along with Wayne Vardaman and Ann Love of the Selma (Economic Development Agency) were the determining factors in Meadowcraft Inc.’s decision to expand in Selma.” Meadowcraft General Manager Andy Hewitt stated in a press release. “Meadowcraft, Inc. looks forward to continued growth and the opportunity to provide employment to many residents in the Selma area.”

The former All-Lock facility is near Water Ave. and the by-pass.

Because of underground water contaminants, it was ruled a Brownfield site, which is a former industrial site that is considered polluted but possess rehabilitative value.

Now, the former environmental hazard will once again be a usable facility.

“A lot of hard work goes into that,” American Apparel COO Jim Hodo said, “turning a problem into an opportunity. That’s what we’ve done here.”

“They came to the EDA and the only building we had was the All-Lock building,” Vardaman said.

Meadowcraft needed a facility of a certain size and the Selma didn’t have many options.

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official as well as an environmental attorney were on hand and the press conference and the announced the site is fit for occupancy and meets OSHA standards.

Hodo, who is also the chair of the EDA’s committee to work with existing business said that four years ago the city had a million square feet of unused industrial buildings. Now he said that number is down to 200,000 square feet.

A spec building may have to be built to help attract further business.

“It’s an ongoing process,” Vardaman said. “Our inventory of buildings has gone down.”

With funds approved by the Selma City Council, the All-Lock building is currently being upgraded to make it useable.

The City Council approved, without knowing the name of the local business, for Perkins to go ahead with the negotiations and to begin improving the facility.

The lease is a two-year agreement with Meadowcraft and will essentially cover the costs of improving the former All-Lock facility.

The company plans to use the facility as a warehouse, apparently that will free up more room in the current Meadowcraft building for the majority of the new employees.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Perkins, Vardaman, Council President George Evans and others thanked the principals, including Team Selma, members of the EPA, Meadowcraft officials, City Council members and others who had a hand in making the agreement possible.

“I’d like to just thank Meadowcraft,” Evans said. “I want to thank all those agencies that played a part in making this happen. I know what we have gone through over the last three years over that building over there.”

“I want to acknowledge the work of Team Selma,” Perkins said of the group of local business and political leaders that have banded together to bring industry to Selma. “This team has worked really hard.”

Vardaman said the EDA and Team Selma members work with existing businesses like Meadowcraft as well.

“The statistics are 80 percent of economic growth comes from existing business,” he said.

Still, the process was not an easy one.

Perkins, Nunn and representatives from Meadowcraft didn’t sign the deal until about 9:30 p.m. Monday night.

“We were negotiating up until the end,” Perkins said.

“It took some miracles to pull this off,” Vardaman added.

Meadowcraft was anxious to get the deal done, according to Hewitt.

“The push was from us at Meadowcraft to get this done as quickly as possible,” he said. “We need to get in the building. We’re going to put a large amount of products in that building after Labor Day.”

The expansion is a gigantic success story for Meadowcraft and its officials.

At one time, the manufacturer of outdoor furniture and cushions filed for bankruptcy, now it needs more space to continue to grow.

“We were a very seasonal company three or four years ago, our season is almost to the point now where its 10 months and it’s soon to be year round that time frame is getting shorter and shorter,” Hewitt said. “We had to come back like a lot of businesses after 9/11. We’ve come back strong. We’re looking forward to future.”