By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Shelby County’s workforce and community support helped attract a large Hibbett Sports distribution facility to Alabaster, the company’s chief executive officer said during a July 31 Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce lunch.

During the luncheon, Hibbett Sports President and CEO Jeff Rosenthal praised Shelby County, and said the company is running slightly ahead of schedule on constructing the new distribution facility.

When completed, the facility in Alabaster’s Shelby West Corporate Park will occupy about 60 acres, and will be about 416,000 square feet. Construction crews have already completed the walls and roof of the massive building, and the facility is tentatively set to open by April 1, 2014, Rosenthal said.

“We are running about three weeks ahead of schedule right now,” Rosenthal said. “Next month, the hard part will begin when we start installing the conveyor belts and building out the inside.”

The Alabaster distribution facility originally was planned to be about 360,000 square feet, but the company decided to up the space to 416,000 to allow the building to serve more retail stores. Hibbett Sports is planning to move to the Alabaster facility from its current 180,000-square-foot distribution facility in Birmingham.

“This will really give us an opportunity to better serve our stores,” Rosenthal said. “We think this will lead to huge revenue growth moving into the future.”

Once completed, the Alabaster facility will employ about 150, and the company will consider expanding its workforce in the future.

“We will start out with one shift, and we hope to expand that to two shifts,” Rosenthal said.

Hibbett Sports chose Alabaster after looking at several other potential locations.

“We looked at a lot of places before we chose Alabaster and Shelby County,” Rosenthal said. “We felt confident with the type of workforce and the community. We are really comfortable with putting this in Shelby County.”