CHEROKEE, ALA. — An affiliate of AE Industrial Partners (AEI), a private equity firm specializing in aerospace investments, has purchased a vacant industrial facility in Cherokee spanning nearly 2.3 million square feet. The Retirement Systems of Alabama sold the facility to AEI for an undisclosed price. The property sits on a 638-acre site at 1200 Haley Drive in northwest Alabama’s Shoals area and was previously home to tenants including National Steel Car, Navistar and FreightCar America.
AEI plans to renovate the facility to serve as an aerospace center and house the headquarters of aerospace suppliers, manufacturers and innovators. The company will also be partnering with Poarch Band of Creek Indians, a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans with reservation lands in lower Alabama, on the project. The facility sits roughly 75 miles west of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.