City, county purchase 40 acres on Messick Road

Dec. 17—CUMBERLAND, Md. — The city of Cumberland and Allegany County have agreed to purchase 40 acres at the junction of Messick Road and state Route 51 for $250,000.

The purchase of the land was approved at Thursday's meeting of the Allegany County Board of Commissioners. The city and county will split the cost, paying $125,000 each for the acreage.

Officials hope the land will be an ideal location for a distribution center or other business venture. The acreage sits on the Cumberland city limits less than a half mile from the site of the future FedEx Transport Distribution Center at Mexico Farms.

County officials announced in mid-November that FedEx is constructing a 193,000-square-foot distribution center, also on 40 acres, at the Mexico Farms site. The FedEx operation could employ more than 200 people when fully operational next year.

Nathan Price, senior project manager for Allegany County, introduced the motion to obtain the Messick Road acreage. "We think there is a lot of different possibilities for development at this particular property," he said.

The city of Cumberland's economic development activities are handled by the nonprofit Cumberland Economic Development Corporation. Matt Miller, CEDC director, and Cumberland Mayor Ray Morriss were on hand for Thursday's county meeting.

Jake Shade, county commission president, praised their contribution to the project.

"The cooperation between the CEDC and the county has never been stronger," said Shade. "We are starting to see this with FedEx. We are seeing these projects come to fruition. Now we will have that land on Messick Road to be able to market, sell and expand."

"This type of partnership, if anything, is a proof of concept," said Miller. "We have worked seamlessly investigating opportunities given this piece of property. We started this project around April of this year, and it has been great experience working with this group."

"I think this is a step in the right direction, with the city, county and CEDC all working together and collaborating on this project," said Morriss. "Hopefully this project can lead to future efforts jointly between us going forward."

The land purchase will now go before the Cumberland City Council next week for approval to finalize the deal. The officials said a developer for the property has not yet been acquired.

Greg Larry is a reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. To reach him, call 304-639-4951, email glarry@times-news.com and follow him on Twitter.