Autauga County pushes Interstate Business Park for long-term growth

Autauga County is building around Interstate 65, and the Interstate Business Park is the clearest sign of that bet. The county calls the site “perfectly positioned in Central Alabama for reach and speed,” and says it is the first stop for companies looking for a site or a building in Autauga County.

A park built for highway access

The park sits less than a mile from Interstate 65, which gives it a practical advantage for distribution, light manufacturing and commercial users that need fast access to the Montgomery metro and the wider Alabama logistics network. That location is what Autauga County is selling first: shorter truck routes, quicker customer access and a site that can connect directly to regional commerce.

The county’s pitch is direct. On its own site, it says, “Whether you're looking for a site or a building, we have just what you need.” That framing matters because it shows the park is not being marketed as a single project but as a platform for different kinds of tenants, from warehouse users to businesses that want a finished building and quicker occupancy.

What is already on the market

Central Alabama Electric Cooperative’s economic-development materials list Interstate Business Park Building II and Interstate Business Park Land as available properties, which means the county and its partners are already offering both immediate space and future build-to-suit options. That mix is important for local growth because it widens the pool of possible users. A company that wants to move fast can take existing space; a company with a longer timeline can still commit to land in the same corridor.

Autauga County also said a 12-acre parcel in the park would become a retail development-ready site for small businesses. That detail matters because it signals that the park is not being reserved only for industrial users. A ready site for small businesses can support service jobs, generate more local sales activity and create the kind of day-to-day commercial traffic that often follows larger industrial investment.

The county has been building this in phases

This is not a one-off announcement. On March 31, 2023, Autauga County reported a groundbreaking for an industrial spec building in the Interstate Business Park and also announced a groundbreaking for Building III. A spec building is a calculated move: it gives the county a structure to market before a tenant signs, which can shorten the time between prospecting and payroll.

The park’s commercial side took shape even earlier. In 2022, county leaders held a groundbreaking for a new commercial area in the Interstate Business Park with support from the Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Autauga County Industrial Development Authority, the Autauga County Commission, Central Alabama Electric Cooperative and Central Access. A September 2022 Montgomery Advertiser story said the park hoped to draw retail and services to the growing area, which matches the county’s broader strategy of using the interstate corridor to attract more than one type of employer.

That is the county’s real long-term play: not just one plant or one warehouse, but a cluster. When industrial space, retail-ready land and utility partners all move together, the result is a stronger base for property values, sales activity and future county revenue.

Pine Level is where the strategy becomes visible

Pine Level makes that strategy easier to see on the ground. The town says it was incorporated in December 2023 and that it sits along US Route 31, about 18 miles northwest of Montgomery. That geography puts it squarely in the path of Autauga County’s growth corridor, where the Interstate Business Park can serve as a commercial edge for a newly incorporated town.

By June 2025, Pine Level Mayor Zachary Bigley was working with DesignAlabama and local residents to plan for future growth. WSFA noted that the pace of change was unusually fast relative to Pine Level’s roughly 400 residents. That is the context for every new tenant announcement in the park: this is a small town planning around a commercial footprint that is growing faster than its population base.

First Community Bank of Central Alabama became the clearest example of that shift. By 2024, the bank had announced plans to expand into Pine Level at the corner of Jesse Samuel Blvd. and Commerce Parkway in the Interstate Business Park. On May 9, 2025, the bank held a groundbreaking ceremony for its branch at 710 Commercial Parkway, and Rana Futral, the bank’s president and CEO, said the Pine Level location would be the bank’s first business in Pine Level and the town’s first groundbreaking ceremony.

What residents should expect to notice first

The first visible changes around the park are already straightforward: construction activity, traffic along Commerce Parkway and Jesse Samuel Blvd., and a branch that brings daily customer visits into a part of the county that was designed for future growth before the growth fully arrived. By February 23, 2026, Autauga County said First Community Bank was open for business at 710 Commercial Parkway after a soft opening on February 2.

That opening matters beyond convenience. A bank branch is not just a building, it is permanent payroll, customer traffic and another business anchor in a corridor that the county is trying to turn into a revenue base. When paired with available land, Building II, Building III and the 12-acre retail-ready parcel, it shows the county is trying to stack employers, services and infrastructure in one place instead of waiting for a single large project to carry the entire corridor.

For Autauga County, the Interstate Business Park is no longer just a parcel map near I-65. It is where the county is trying to convert highway access into jobs, commercial investment and a broader tax base, one tenant and one groundbreaking at a time.