Full Speed Ahead for Coastal Georgia
Published Aug 18, 2009
A flagging national economy is not taking the wind out of Coastal Georgia’s sails.
“You can’t let up,” says Allen Burns, executive director of the Coastal Regional Commission. “Good enough never is, and that’s why you’ve got to keep moving forward.”
Moving forward is the name of the game for Atlanta-based developer IDI, which recruited the Canadian company Do It Right This Time, or DIRTT, to locate its first U.S. manufacturing facility at Crossroads Business Center in Savannah.
The company, which manufactures movable wall partitions for office buildings, expects to create 150 jobs over the next two years. Coastal Georgia’s accessibility to the rest of the country was a major factor in the decision, says Sean Fitzsimmons, vice president of national business development for IDI.
“Within a 500-mile radius, a one-day drive out of the Port of Savannah, you can hit all the way down to Miami, all the way north in Virginia, and well out into the central Midwest,” he says.
In addition to its work at the Crossroads Business Center, IDI is also developing a 300-acre industrial park on I-95 in Liberty County to attract manufacturers and distributors, most of which are looking for 250,000 to 800,000 square feet of space.
“Savannah still is getting a lot of interest from both large distribution users and, somewhat surprisingly and pleasantly, midsize manufacturing users,” Fitzsimmons says.
Coastal Georgia is a major tourism destination, and its hospitality segment is also investing in the future.
Jekyll Island has embarked on a major redevelopment plan that includes five new hotel projects.
Jekyll Island Beach Village, encompassing some $350 million in private investment, will include integrated shopping and dining, residential cottages, a 400-room hotel and a renovated and expanded convention center.
Military investment in the region is also proving to be a boon. Fort Stewart is a 280,000-acre Army installation that sprawls into parts of five counties. About 45 minutes away is Hunter Army Airfield, a 5,300-acre base that has the longest runway on the East Coast. Combined, the two bases generate annual direct federal expenditures of $1.2 billion and employ 4,300 civilian workers and 25,000 military personnel. Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Camden County is home to more than 5,200 active duty personnel, 2,100 civilian employees and 1,700 contractors. The base has annual payroll of more than $500 million.
Savannah-based JCB Inc. began work at its Pooler facility in January 2008 to fulfill a $230 million U.S. Army contract for 800 combat-ready backhoe loaders, creating roughly 120 jobs.
“From a JCB perspective, the same factors apply today as they did 10 years ago when we chose to come here: We sit on the edge of a port that is essential to our business, both for imports and exports,” says John Patterson, chairman and CEO of JCB.
“Georgia is blessed with a number of first-class technical colleges that are extremely helpful from an engineering perspective in the recruiting of young engineers,” he says. “It has a quality of life that doesn’t exist in other areas inland.”
Story by Michaela Jackson
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