NATCHEZ — Adams County has a problem with land, and it can be summed up by Will Rogers’ famous quip — God ain’t making any more of it.

For the last 15 years, Natchez-Adams County’s economic recruiters have had 120 acres of prime industrial land to point to in the form of the former Belwood Country Club.

But with Monday’s announcement by biofuels company KiOR that it would be building a facility on the Belwood site, local economic development officials are looking for the next big site to hold up to prospects.

“It is a double edged sword,” Natchez Inc. Director Chandler Russ said. “It is a good problem that we have sold our inventory, but it is a bad problem that we have sold our inventory.”

While Russ said any land agreement the county signs with KiOR will have performance and reverter provisions that would return the land to the county if the company is not able to get up and running written into it, ideally those provisions won’t be needed.

That means the next big question for the area is what property will Natchez Inc. push.

“Our large holdings, our prime industrial property, is currently taken,” Russ said. “We have got to look toward the future and look at means and ways to bring some industrial property back into our portfolio so that we don’t turn back the clock there.”

Even though Natchez Inc. is part of a big push for regional cooperation, Russ said it is important for Adams County to continue to have property to market to potential industries.

“Whether Concordia Parish has 1,000 acres readily available or not doesn’t negate the need that Adams County needs property to market to industrial clients,” he said.

“There are differences in each prospective area, ports and railroads and roads and raw materials — they are meeting the needs of different clients. It is imperative that both sides have healthy land inventories to market and sell to industrial clients.”

The first goal, Russ said, is to find river property.

“(The river) is what separates us entirely,” he said. “It is one of our key differentiators between us and other places. To continue to try to leverage that would be goal one. If we can accomplish that, we can start looking away from the river.”

Site selection will also have to factor in roads, rail access, utilities and other infrastructure, Russ said.

“It is definitely something we will give significant time and effort to in the coming time ahead,” he said. “We have got to get it resolved and get some land in inventory.”