Directors of the Development Authority of Bulloch County have called a special meeting for 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 16, as the DABC prepares to spend about $2 million to develop a 70-acre industrial site – but not for any specific industry.
The announced topic is “Consideration of a Contract for Site Construction at the Cannady Site in Gateway II Regional Industrial Park.” In June, the Development Authority of Bulloch County was one of four development authorities, all in southern and central Georgia, awarded Rural Site Development grants, totaling about $8 million, from the OneGeorgia Authority.
At the same time, several other counties were awarded smaller “scholarships” to assist with preparing sites for review and certification under the state’s GRAD, or Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development, program.
Bulloch County’s grant is for $1,518,920 for site grading and sewer improvements at the 69.74-acre, already GRAD-certified Cannady Site.
“Over the summer we received a Rural Site Development Initiative Grant,” Benjy Thompson, the DABC’s chief executive officer, said earlier this week. “It’s money that helps development authorities prepare sites for recruitment. So we’re leveraging that grant money just to move the dirt. We don’t have a project.”
By “project,” he means the local authority does not have a specific industrial prospect for which it is preparing a site.
“The grant, I think, was $1.5 million, and we’re going to spend a little bit more than that to level that site, to fill in some wetlands that we’ve had delineated and we’ve had the mitigation credits for, for quite some time, and we’re also going to extend some sewer over to that site,” Thompson said.
The sewer main will be connected to Statesboro’s city system.
In June, the announcement of the grant awards issued by the Governor’s Office included the statement, “The Development Authority of Bulloch County is contributing to the total infrastructure cost of $2,024,960.”
So, the difference between the announced OneGeorgia funding and the estimated total cost was $506,040. What the Development Authority actually spends of its own money will depend on final contract costs.
Gateway II Regional Industrial Park is on the west side of U.S. Highway 301/25, south of Statesboro and across the highway from Ogeechee Technical College. The Cannady Site is the still mostly bare pad area off Gateway Boulevard from JC Cannady Road, near Great Dane Trailers and WL Plastics.
“This effort will make that site more marketable for projects because it will be better prepared for what comes next,” Thompson said. “You can start construction when a project decides on that site; there’s less work to do to get ready.”
The DABC, with state, county and city support, completed a similar project at Bruce Yawn Commerce Park – which is farther south on U.S. 301, at the I-16 interchange – several years ago.
“It was a very good investment by us and the state out there, and we feel comfortable and confident that the same thing will happen here,” said Thompson.
Both Ajin USA, which built its factory in the Bruce Yawn Commerce Park and now supplies structural automotive parts to Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, and Aspen Aerogels, which started building a plant but cancelled it before completion, chose that park after the extensive preparations.
The former Aspen Aerogels building is being marketed and has had several prospects, but “nothing firm” to Thompson’s knowledge, he said.