Celebration Arena gets new life as solar panel packaging maker

For the Enquirer

The old Celebration Arena in Priceville has found new life as a solar panel packaging maker.

Tree Brand Packaging has leased the 83,000-squarefoot former horse arena to make specialty shipping pallets that will be assembled into crates for the solar panels being produced by First Solar’s solar panel manufacturing plant in Lawrence County.

Chris Helms, president of North Carolina-based Tree Brand, said he plans to employ 20 people in the coming months to help manufacture the crates that will be used to ship worldwide the solar panels made at the Mallard Fox West Industrial Park.

“We’re already doing a little work here and a lot at our second location in Ranburne, Alabama,” said Helms, 55.

Once a crate is competed, it will be trucked to Lawrence County as needed and eventually loaded with the solar panels, he said.

“We have a bunch of equipment coming,” he said. “Some of it is already in our second location in Ranburne. We will have a little bit of equipment here. It’s a complicated project, so we didn’t want to do it all in one spot. We want to be able to store trailers filled with the crates here ready to go because when First Solar is at full capacity, it’s going to be a lot. So, we do a lot of work down in Ranburne and we’re going to do some of the work here and a lot of the storage here.” Helms isn’t sure how many crates will be needed. First Solar is turning out some solar panels but won’t be at full capacity until the first of the year, if then, he said.

“It’s a new plant so they are naturally having some problems starting up,” Helms said, adding that the plant is “really, really big and 100% American.” Tree Brand will build all the parts of the specialty pallets, including the wooden sides and the lid, which will form a crate. One rectangular crate will eventually hold dozens of solar panels, he said. First Solar will assemble the crates around the solar panels. There will be 30 or more trailers stationed at the Priceville plant that will shuttle product, he said.

Making the crates will be sped up by some newly purchased machinery. One of the new pieces of equipment at the Ranburne facility can turn out six a minute versus 20 an hour by hand, Helms said.

“It’s much faster, but it costs a lot of money and you have to wait a long time because only a couple of people make it,” he said of the machinery.

Once First Solar reaches capacity, Tree Brand will be busy with pallet making and with trucking them to the Lawrence County plant for packaging the solar panels, he said.

“That’s why as part of the contract they want you to be close,” Helms said. “You have to commit to being in a certain radius. We are way closer than we are required.” To learn about the First Solar project, they traveled to Ohio, where First Solar is based, to learn about what was required.

“We went up and learned about it through a suppli-er that is already doing it, so we could get it right,” Helms said. “That supplier shared it with us – they didn’t have to share with us. They were very nice to help us learn so we could hit the ground running fast. Because First Solar’s production goals are going to be quite aggressive.” Local benefits Jeremy Nails, president and CEO of Morgan County Economic Development Association, said he is thrilled to see First Solar suppliers and he is happy the underused facility at Priceville has found new life.

“Anytime there’s a large announcement like a First Solar project that has a million dollars of investment and creates that many jobs, that is obviously going to flow back into Morgan County when you consider the proximity of that facility to Decatur and Morgan County,’ he said.

“We will have a lot of people that live in our area that will work (at First Solar). We will have some other businesses hopefully come in – just like Tree Brand Packaging – to help support that. So, even though it is not technically in Morgan County, it’s very close and it’s going to benefit the entire region.” A North Carolina native, Helms heard about the First Solar project in Lawrence County while working on a project for a company called Q CELLS USA Inc., a South Korean company in Dalton, Georgia. He bid for and obtained the contract with First Solar. He learned about the availability of Celebration Arena and it all worked out.

He said more and more solar energy companies are finding success in the states.

“A lot of companies are coming here because of the clean energy infrastructure investment that the U.S. government is paying,” he said. “You can’t do nuclear energy real fast and coal has got problems with pollution, so solar is a sustainable alternative. And China is real far ahead; Europe is way far ahead. We’re behind in that sense, so the government is trying to spur the growth.” Background The arena, located about 3 miles southeast of Priceville’s Interstate 65 interchange, closed Dec. 19, 2022, after holding the annual World Racking Horse Celebration each September for 50 years. The COVID-19 pandemic caused many event cancellations, and finances did not rebound as the pandemic subsided, officials said at the time.

The State Products Mart Authority sold the 143-acre arena site to Aaron Guthrie of Two Deals LLC for $2.5 million in 2022.

He invested at least $1 million renovating the 83,000-square-foot facility and preparing it for industry, including adding a new concrete floor, said the real estate agent on the project, Jeff Parker of Parker Real Estate LLC. Guthrie is leasing the property to Tree Brand, Parker said.