Phase I of Habersham County’s Airport Business Park is almost complete, and the second phase could soon see the rest of the park fill up fast. But with impending growth anticipated in the years ahead, and Habersham’s disproportionately residential tax digest, another business park along GA 365 appears imminent.
Since the park’s inception about a decade ago, more than a dozen businesses now occupy space on 11 lots in the 80-acre industrial park, generating revenue and jobs.
Business park benefits
The city of Baldwin reaped nearly $100,000 from the business park from 2023-2024, and Habersham County receives around $600,000 in revenue from the site annually.
“The industrial park in Baldwin is an important component in balancing the city’s tax digest,” Baldwin Mayor Stephanie Almagno said. “Having commercial real estate in the city takes additional financial burden off homeowners. The current industrial park is also well situated among the county’s strategic transportation nodes: airport, rail and highway – making it an important regional element in the county’s economic development.”
The Airport Business Park, owned by Habersham County’s Development Authority, has generated hundreds of jobs over the years.
Specifically, around 250 jobs total, according to Partnership Habersham Executive Director Charlie Fiveash. Manufacturer SteelCell, operating with 140 employees, has produced a bulk of those jobs on its own.
“The business park has been a major asset to the community,” Fiveash said. “… The park will continue to attract companies to the vacant sites in Phase I and Phase II, but the major driver is the dollars generated by the lot sales in the park, which will enable (Habersham) to be in a position to capture a larger project on a larger site on the southern end of the county.”
Phase I spaces left to be occupied by business include: A 40,000 square-foot speculative building, completed in 2023 by developer Don Higgins, which still stands vacant. Then there’s an Alpharetta-based developer, Wilson-Hutchison, who purchased two sites in 2022 but has yet to build.
On Tuesday, Fiveash stated progress on phase II is well underway. On about 40 recently-acquired acres of land, Fiveash said the second phase soon could bring in a (currently undisclosed) poultry-related company. That project, he added, could include a 100,000 square-foot building to house 30 new jobs in the community.
Another business park?
Officials say it’s likely – ideally sooner rather than later. And now, with the Airport Business Park filling up, deliberations on a future site for development in Habersham County continue both publicly and privately.
Habersham County Commission Chairman Ty Akins said officials are actively looking at potential sites for a future business park on GA 365, though “nothing has been decided” yet.
“We are working with the development authority to try and find some land,” Akins said. “Because the (current) business park is sold out…everybody knows we have to get some more land, add some more economic development. Everybody is kind of in consensus that they want to see (a park) on the (GA) 365 corridor.”
In the past, Akins has noted publicly that Habersham’s tax digest jumped from 56% residential in 2015 to 79% in 2023. As another indication of growth, he’s said Georgia Power has added 1,076 new meters and HEMC an additional 1,150 meters to homes in the last five years.
Amid rising population numbers, Akins told Now Habersham on Tuesday that building a new park will be critical in lifting the tax burden off residents and onto the backs of industry.
“The county is struggling to provide services because we’re so much bigger (now),” Akins said. “There’s only one way to get property tax bills down for homeowners – and that’s (business) development. Businesses pay way more in taxes than they require in services. Unlike a home, a business pays a value of the property and the value of the building – and then they pay the value of all the equipment and inventory inside.”
“Conversely,” he added, residents “use more” services than they pay in taxes.
The county could work with Habersham’s Development Authority to acquire land along that corridor and fund construction of a second business park in the near future, according to Akins, possibly next year.
The impact of the inland port
Another factor driving demand for a second business park is the Northeast Georgia Inland Port – also known as the Blue Ridge Connector – a $170 million regional cargo terminal planned at Gateway Industrial Centre off GA 365 and White Sulphur Road.
Both Akins and Habersham County Commissioner Bruce Palmer believe GA 365 is an ideal location for a park because of its proximity to the port.
Palmer cited the Blue Ridge Connector project by name when he described his vision of a new destination to draw industry. Though Palmer’s time in office is set to expire at midnight on Dec. 31, he said he’ll continue to work as an advocate for the county and push for a future business park.
“We have an opportunity with the inland port to have some warehouse and distribution industry come into Habersham County,” Palmer said. “That’s one of the things that can help offset the taxes from residential property owners. We really need some industry in Habersham County.”
By 2026, the 104-acre inland port, operating within 25 miles of Habersham County’s border, will become a center for semi-trucks to load and unload cargo on and off a 3,000-foot train – which will run to and from Savannah’s harbor via a 324-mile freight service rail line.
And while it’s intended to reduce the amount of semi-truck traffic statewide, the terminal is expected to have a sizable impact on roads off GA 365, with a concentration of 18-wheelers traveling to and from the site, as well as population growth from new development, a likely outcome.
To Habersham’s southwest, Hall County Administrator Zach Propes has said an estimated 9,682 new jobs “supported by port activity” already have been added in recent years.
At first, once the facility is complete, the area around the inland port could see up to 160 additional semi trucks a day. By full buildout decades from now, according to the Georgia Mountain Regional Commission, an estimated 400 semi-trucks (one truck every two minutes) could be loading or unloading goods at the port daily. This, in turn, makes the GA 365 corridor a desirable location for new business.
“If we’re not ready for that commercial development when the growth starts coming from the inland port, we’re going to miss that opportunity,” Palmer said.
Fiveash expressed a similar sentiment. “Ideally, we would like to see one major company or several larger distribution companies locate along the 365 corridor for the purpose of claiming direct access to the Blue Ridge Connector,” he said.
Who supplies water, sewer?
To set the stage for potential business expansion down GA 365, officials agree there must be water/sewer infrastructure in place.
Habersham County is without a water system, but Baldwin and Cornelia both are well-positioned to extend those services along that route down the road. Hall County also has identified GA 365 as a prime location for expansion of water/wastewater infrastructure.
Still, ultimately, the question of which government entity could supply those services from the north – or how such a project could be funded – remains to be seen.
Akins said that while there isn’t a clear answer to that question now, he knows the need is there. “That’s a big question,” he said. “That’s a big part of it.”
Names of some of the top businesses in Habersham’s Airport Business Park include:
- Southern Concrete
- OK Foods
- SteelCell
- Kinetic/Windstream
- GTS Customs
- Precision Digital (in progress)
- Solmax
Fiveash said funds from acquisition of the lots go to the development authority, which seeks to reinvest those dollars in the community.
