Multiple potential suppliers for Hyundai Motor Group’s massive electric vehicle meta plant are currently seeking as many as three industrial sites off U.S. Highway 301 near the I-16 interchange in Bulloch County through its Development Authority.

Two of the sites – one already owned by the Development Authority of Bulloch County and one for which the DABC was slated to conclude a purchase Thursday – were the subject of zoning changes approved by the county commissioners during their meeting Tuesday evening.

“We now have, interested in this site, one of the major suppliers for the Hyundai plant,” Steve Rushing, attorney for the DABC, said about the first site.

The screen showed a top-down outline of an unidentified, unbuilt industrial building, little more than a rectangle.

“This particular project that you see here was the first one that showed an interest in the property,” he told the commissioners. “Even since we made this application, we have had other, similar suppliers interested in this same site. So we now have multiple prospects.”

If one  of those prospects chooses the site, “it would mean millions of dollars in capital investment and hundreds of well paying jobs for our county,” Rushing said.

Before executives of South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Group broke ground for the company’s Meta Plant America in neighboring Bryan County on Oct. 25, Bulloch officials were already talking to some suppliers interested in locating here. The Hyundai plant alone is expected to employ 8,100 people, but the spinoff industries that supply it could create jobs closer to home for residents of surrounding counties.

I-16 park filling up

During his presentation, Rushing mentioned that the DABC may soon have no land left within its existing I-16 industrial park, recently renamed Bruce Yawn Commerce Park, “with another Hyundai supplier interested in the balance of that site.” That would mean the rest not occupied by Aspen Aerogels, whose factory is under construction.

So the development authority has acquired some additional land.

The Commerce Park is on the southeastern quadrant of the interchange. The two parcels newly rezoned this week for light industrial uses also reach to U.S.  301 on its eastern side but are more than a mile north of the Commerce Park and I-16.

The Development Authority purchased one of the parcels, measuring 51.97 acres, last summer from previous owner ORB Properties LLC. It is 1.3 miles north of the interchange and across U.S. 301 from the Allgreen Recycling building. Although zoned HC for “highway commercial” until Tuesday’s vote, this land is being used for agriculture. At least part of it is a cotton field at present.

“The two previous owners, dating back to the early 2000s, anticipated commercial use for this property, but it never happened over a 15-year period, and that’s really worked out for us,” Rushing said.

North of that parcel and adjoining it, the second tract rezoned, measuring 52.72 acres, was owned by the James Akins Suddeth estate as of Tuesday, but Rushing said the DABC was set to close on the purchase Thursday.

Technically two parcels, this land includes a field and some woods and was previously zoned in part HC and in part AG-5 agricultural. One corner of it is across from the Truck & Industrial company building.

At the request of the Development Authority, both parcels were rezoned to LI, “light industrial.”

Rushing called them “ideal as a light industrial site for a lot of reasons.”

First, he noted, city of Statesboro water and sewer mains previously extended to the interchange at county and city expense pass in front of these tracts along U.S. 301. Second, the tracts lie within the Interstate Gateway District designated in the county’s Smart Bulloch 2040 Comprehensive Plan, and third, the property on the other side of U.S. 301 is zoned for heavy industry, Rushing said.

Nobody spoke in opposition to the DABC’s requests. The Board of Commissioners’ votes of approval were unanimous, except that Commissioner Curt Deal abstained because he also serves on the DABC board.

A new 100 acres

One Hyundai supplier had expressed interest in both tracts, Rushing said. But he noted that it would also be possible to have a separate industrial plant on each parcel and said the Development Authority may be able “to pick and choose,” selecting a company that would create the most jobs and invest the most in the county.

“The parcels we had rezoned this week could be for one supplier, could be for multiple suppliers. We’re not real sure how that’s going to play itself out,” Development Authority of Bulloch County CEO Benjy Thompson said Thursday. “But it’s certainly another opportunity for us to have around a hundred acres of industrial property ready for recruitment.”

Residential tie-in

A boom in housing development, driven in part by Hyundai’s announcement, has drawn heated resistance from some current Bulloch residents, especially in the southeastern part of the county. This prompted the commissioners in August to impose a 180-day, partial moratorium on rezoning of agricultural land there for higher-density subdivisions, while planning is underway for possible revisions of the county’s future land use map.

County Manager Tom Couch sees supplier industries locating here as a positive trend, helping offset residential growth to prevent Bulloch County from becoming a “bedroom community.” Compared to residential areas, industries usually require relatively few government services relative to the tax revenues they generate.

“You never want to become a bedroom community because that really makes your (county) finances upside down, and we have to be very intentional about growing our industrial and commercial base too, because that’s really the best form of tax relief,” Couch said. “It takes the pressure off of residential taxpayers.”

But industries’ site selection teams can also take an interest in the availability of housing. Board of Commissioners Chairman Roy Thompson, interviewed at the Hyundai site the day of the groundbreaking, said Bulloch County officials had talked to representatives of one of the supplier industries the previous day, and the first thing they had asked was where they could buy about 50 new homes for their key people.

“I’m hoping that Bulloch County can adapt, and I’m hoping that all of this would be good growth that we’re going to get, and first and foremost people are going to have to accept it…,” he said. “Like I share with all of the citizens, the ones that own property will control the growth of Bulloch County, and if there’s no land for sale, Bulloch County’s not going to grow.”