A national publication recently studied economic growth and site development along the more than 1,500-mile stretch of Interstate 20. Augusta made a big impression.
Site Selection Magazine, a publication that caters to business executives and site selection consultants, found the highest concentration in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington with 772 sites. Atlanta and New Orleans rounded out the top three.
However, Augusta made the list, sitting at number 10. The study looked at all new corporate and end-user, facility investment projects over the past two years in the counties the interstate passes through. Joining Augusta on the list is Columbia, S.C., at number six.
“I’m surprised we’re in the top 10 for the entire I-20 corridor, just because it’s such a long corridor. But I’m not shocked by it,” Cal Wray, President of the Augusta Economic Development Authority (AEDA), told ABD. “Columbia obviously had Scout Motors. We’ve obviously had 2, 3, 4, and 5 of our own big announcements. Columbia County had some, Aiken’s had some.”
Will Williams, President and CEO of Western SC Economic Development, said the findings line up with the importance of transportation.
“We in the economic development profession, recognize the proximity to the interstate is essential for logistics of the product, but also access by employees,” he said. “We’ve long known the importance of it, but this puts us literally on the map, showing that, hey, the CSRA has all this good stuff, too.”
Adam Bruns, Editor-in-Chief, head of Publications of the magazine, said proximity to a major highway is important for site selectors. However, they are also looking for the so-called shovel-ready sites.
“That means having the permitting done, having certain environmental studies, soil studies, already complete, so that companies with really fast timelines in mind can get started right away on construction. It helps that process if you’ve got good collaboration between your city and county governments.”
Wray said state economic development leaders collect criteria from publications like Site Selector Magazine and contact the local offices to get a list of sites that meet the requirements.
“Then they put a master list together, and then they submit them to these magazines to compete for those rankings,” he said. “In any given year, we’ll have anywhere from two to 20 of those that qualify for that list. Then they normally rank it by number of projects, sometimes by investment, sometimes by jobs, but what they look for is you can submit a project every time you hit one of those criteria.”
Bruns said access to an interstate highway is one of the top criteria, but site selectors also look for a robust system of feeder roads.
“Something that a site consultant years and years ago told me was that even though we have feature articles about interstate corridors companies, if they have a really good U.S or state highway that’s a four-lane divided highway with good egress and ingress, then that’s just as good. You don’t have to have that interstate label to be a really strong logistics asset, transportation asset for an area,” he said.
Wray said that is one of the reasons Augusta Corporate Park has been successful. Its location on Mike Padgett Highway gives easy access to Bobby Jones Expressway and then to I-20. It is also in proximity to Augusta Regional Airport.
Williams said they are creating a development site midway between Aiken-Augusta and Columbia. Called North Fork Commerce Park, it is off I-20 exit 33.
“We were intentional about where we saw the property,” he explained. “It’s a 1,900-acre property that we’re in the process of bringing infrastructure to, but we were intentional because we understood the importance of being within two miles of I-20. It gives us the opportunity to tap into a different labor shed. If you do that 45-mile radius that these site selection consultants use when they’re looking at labor availability, it still touches Augusta, but it also gets us further into the Columbia metropolitan area.”
Bruns said, in addition to available land ready for development, local economic development offices can enhance their profile by highlighting education.
“Really kind of showcases the workforce development component, which means your technical college and community college system, as well as colleges and universities that are four years,” he said.
Wray and Williams credit partnerships they have with Augusta and Aiken Technical Colleges, Augusta University, and USC-Aiken with creating the trained workforce companies need.
