By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Dunn Corporate Park will welcome its first tenant on July 24, as Penske Truck Leasing is cutting the ribbon on a new 8,480-square-foot location off Interstate 65.

Penske is set to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the new location, which is at 185 Airpark Industrial Road, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on July 24.

The facility, which has been operational for a few weeks, will offer full-service truck leasing, consumer and commercial truck rental and contract truck fleet maintenance.

“The company will be hiring several new truck maintenance technicians and management trainees to staff the location,” read a company release.

The location will include two truck service bays, an automated truck wash bay, a one-lane commercial truck fuel island providing bulk diesel exhaust fluid dispensing and the ability to perform maintenance on alternative fuel vehicles running on compressed natural gas.

Alabaster Mayor Marty Handlon said the business is a welcome addition to Dunn Corporate Park, which has sat vacant for multiple years.

“That corporate park has been pad-ready for a few years,” Handlon said during a July 17 phone interview. “We are pleased that they chose us for the site of their new facility.”

Penske Senior Vice President Chip Jensen said the company chose the location after examining the locations of its current and prospective customers.

“We’ve been growing in the Birmingham area for quite a while,” Jensen said during a July 20 phone interview. “We looked at our where are current customers are located relative to our locations, and plotted them on a map. We did the same with our prospective customers. We tried to put ourselves in the center of that map.

“We will offer a complete 360 of what a business needs to get products to their customers,” Jensen added. “We are excited about it.”

Handlon said the Penske project does not include any city tax incentives.

“It makes me feel very proud that we have been able to recruit new businesses and be limited in what is asked of us as far as incentives,” Hendlon said, noting Dunn Corporate Park is on the opposite side of I-65 from the Shelby West Corporate Park near the Shelby County Airport. “We are looking forward to seeing future development in that corporate park. Hopefully, they won’t be the only tenant there for long.”