Rural Development Partners Funds PackEx with $20 Million NMTC to Rebuild Marianna's Economy After Hurricane
What's the deal? Rural Development Partners has allocated $20M in New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) financing to PackEx USA, a startup building an aluminium-only bottling facility in Marianna, Florida. The project also drew $12M from River Gorge Capital and $10M from HEDC New Markets, with Truist as investor and Lone Star Project Advisors as consultant.
PackEx is redeveloping a 256,000 square-foot former water bottling plant into a state-of-the-art industrial facility. Phase 1 will support two production lines and create roughly 300 full-time jobs, with later phases projected to add four more lines and over 600 employees.
Why now? Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida panhandle in 2018, destroying 5,500 jobs and causing an estimated $38B in economic damage. Millions of acres of timberland were stripped, gutting the timber and papermill industries that had been the region's economic backbone.
Seven years on, Marianna still struggles to attract industries capable of rebuilding its economic base. "PackEx was founded on a clear vision: to become a leader in sustainable manufacturing," said chairman Mahmoud Amrouch. The company says its aluminium-only model taps growing demand for sustainable packaging.
What could go wrong? The facility sits in a hurricane-prone region — the very risk that shuttered the original plant. PackEx must also prove its aluminium bottling model can compete at scale in a beverage industry dominated by plastic and glass. Building a 300-person workforce in a depopulated rural area poses its own challenges.
The signal: The deal illustrates how federal tax credit programmes like the NMTC are channelling capital into rural disaster recovery where private investment alone falls short. Rural Development Partners has now deployed $906.7M across 14 NMTC awards since 2004, funding 58 businesses and nonprofits in underserved communities.
It also reflects a broader bet on sustainable packaging. As consumer brands face pressure to cut plastic use, aluminium-only facilities like PackEx's could carve out a meaningful niche — if they can scale.
