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Umatilla, RCM Utilities Working On Big Industrial Park Deal

    On the heels of Phillips Manufacturing pulling out of a planned relocation to the new Umatilla industrial Park, local firm RCM Utilities appears ready to fill the gap.  RCM, a growing utility service company currently operating out of Eustis, has approached the city about purchasing approximately 20 acres at the industrial park site that formerly served as the city’s wastewater spray field.
    Phillips had purchased the property and announced plans to relocate from its current Dona Vista location.  However, the company sold and the new owners halted the move, triggering a city option to purchase the land back, which it did in recent weeks.  Now, RCM has stepped forward with an offer to purchase the location and move its operations to Umatilla.     
    RCM is owned by Umatilla Mayor Chris Creech, and the company had previously purchased a smaller parcel adjoining the city’s industrial park site with intentions of relocating.  However, the availability of the larger site and the company’s continued growth created the synergy for the new deal.     
    RCM offered $812,000 for the land, with plans to build at least an 80,000-square-foot facility to house staff and equipment.
    During discussions of the matter at last Tuesday’s meeting of the Umatilla City Council, Creech declined to participate due to conflicts brought on by his position on the council. However, council members unanimously agreed to discuss the matter and even tacitly approve the sale, pending price negotiations.  The council asked staff to counter with an offer of $818,000, the amount of money the city paid Phillips at the time it bought the property back.  
    On Monday, city manager Aaron Mercer said he had not received word of a counter offer from RCM, but expected to at some point this week.
    Creech later on Monday said RCM has no issue with paying the slightly higher amount, as the original offer was meant to allow the city to be 'completely whole' related to its expenses associated with buying the property back from Phillips, and the original offer had mistakenly left out closing costs associated with that deal.
    Creech said the site is already in design, and construction could begin sooner rather than later.
    “We’re looking to break ground by the end of this year.  We’re very excited about it.” the move will allow the firm to place its operations under a single roof, a situation that it does not currently enjoy in Eustis.
    The city is keen to add RCM, or any firm, to join the industrial park project, as a $4.8 million grant award the city received from the State of Florida last year to develop the location calls for the creation of at least 300 jobs in association with the development over the next decade.
    RCM’s growth has been stratospheric since its founding just under seven years ago in Umatilla, and Creech has been keen on moving its operations back to town.  
    “The business started with me and one other person in Umatilla,” he recalls.  Today, he feels the firm is the largest of its kind in the state, with operations now spreading as far north as South Carolina and as far west as the western areas of the Florida panhandle.  
    “We’re more of a regional firm now,” Creech said.  In that vein, he said the company plans to hold on to its previously purchased land in the area for potential future needs.
    In other news regarding the industrial park, the city announced at the meeting that discussions to sell the industrial park site to private developer Scott Purvis have ended without an agreement.  Beyond the land tentatively earmarked for RCM, there are several other sites the city hopes to develop in an area that formerly housed percolation ponds.  It now appears the city will again attempt to develop those sites in-house.