Last week, the President of the Augusta Economic Development Authority (AEDA) walked business leaders through the impact of regional development.
Cal Wray brought the report to the Chamber’s first Member Economic Luncheon of 2025. He pulled together numbers from Richmond, Columbia, and Burke counties in Georgia and Aiken County in South Carolina.
“Aiken, $1.36 billion in new investment, 1,452 new jobs,” he began. “Burke was $50 million investment, 244 new jobs. Columbia County, $158 million with 1,600 new jobs. Richmond County, $1.335 billion and 778 jobs. That is what manufacturing, data, and distribution are doing for Augusta and the surrounding communities.”
Joining Wray were Will Williams, President and CEO of Western SC Economic Development, Cheney Eldridge, Executive Director of the Columbia County Economic Development Authority (CCEDA), and Austin Stacy, Executive Director of the Development Authority of Burke County (DABC). Wray said they work together to market the region to new businesses.
“The three pillars of our office, we focus on manufacturing, distribution, and the recruitment of those jobs for the community, but that’s only one of the pieces,” he said. “Once they get here, they have to have people in the workforce to be successful. So, we have a lot of partners that are doing workforce development all across the area. But it’s also livability. How can you get people here because they want to live in our community?”
A new report by the website Livability is likely a tool developers can use. It focuses on the strengths of small and mid-sized towns. Its most recent list of the “Top 100 Best Places to Live” includes Augusta. (https://livability.com/ga/augusta/) It cites Augusta’s robust economy, cost of living below the national average, affordable housing, educational opportunities, and recreation.
After detailing the existing projects, as well as those under construction, Wray turned his attention to the future.
He said one impediment Richmond County faces is a lack of available, large industrial buildings, ready for occupancy.
“We have sites, we have dirt. We need buildings to cut that development time down by 12 to 15 months,” he explained.
He added they are finalizing a partnership with Rosefellow, a Canadian company that specializes in design and rapid execution of Class A warehouses, distribution centers, and strategic logistics solutions.
“So that’s what we’re hoping they work with us on. How do we bring available assets to the community so we can move manufacturing and distribution faster more to come as we see plans. I think these will be anywhere from 100,000 to 500,000 square feet buildings that will bring in these large manufacturers for large jobs that will continue to help us.”
The Augusta Commission is being asked to facilitate further development in South Augusta. The AEDA has submitted a request to be included in the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) to extend the county’s sewer system. It currently ends at the Augusta Corporate Park on Mike Padgett Highway.
That is particularly important to support a new industrial site in South Augusta.
“We have 1,150 acres out in south Augusta for our next Industrial area. We’re envisioning this as one site. This will be a mega user. This will not be broken up and parceled out. This will be one user. This will be a Hyundai-type project, a Rivian-type project,” he said. “It sits on the Burke County line. So, our partnership with Austin is vital, to have supplier sites around it.”
According to state documents, a large data center is still planned for a site on Gordon Highway.
Documents for the Development of Regional Interest (DRI) show a company listed as Eagle South, LLC. The DRI identifies the name of the development as Project Eisenhower. That is the site of the previously announced T5 data center campus. It is described as consisting of six two-story buildings with a phased development totaling approximately 2.15 million sq. ft. of office/warehousing space.
Wray said a study in 2012 found Augusta was home to six cyber-related companies. That number is now more than 100. He pointed to expansions in solar industries and the medical communities on both sides of the river.
“It’s why we’re one of the 20 most diverse economies in the country, we have so many industries that employ people with different skill sets that can all help each other,” he said.
One area, he said, continues to lag: The need for adequate workforce housing.
“But we’re not housing. We try to stay out of housing, but having workforce housing is vital,” he said. “So, we’re trying to make sure housing continues to grow in Richmond County, especially after what happened with Helene in September, and all of the product taken off the market, at least hopefully temporarily, but a lot of products taken out, and making it even harder for people to find places to live.”
To support that, AEDA recently requested and was awarded a $2.5 million grant from OneGeorgia funds. It will support the development of 55 single-family housing units in the Southern Oaks Phase 1. It will provide infrastructure improvements, including road, water, and sewer construction.
