Georgia makes it easy for companies wishing to locate in the state to find the perfect location with a simple search.
The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) website has a page dedicated to guiding companies to a location that will check all the boxes on their wish list.
The site selector map allows the user to search by multiple tools, including location, workforce, and demographics.
“It’s kind of our best-kept secret, and it’s really on us to kind of spread that word honestly,” Bob Kosek, Division Director of Global Commerce, who oversees project management teams, told ABD. “It’s not just us either. All three utilities that we work with, Georgia EMC, the Electric Cities of Georgia, and Georgia Power, all have their own view, and we all use the same database.”
Kosek said the mapping tool is designed to collaborate with companies and site selection consultants looking to build or expand in Georgia.
“if we’re working with a company that needs 50 acres, and they want to be in the CSRA, or they want to be in Macon, they can go on and say, ‘Okay, this is what could be quickly available to my client, or this is what could be quickly available to us,’ and we know that this is something that is on the market and something that we can really kind of move pretty quickly on. It’s really the market advantage for us.”
The map provides a cross-section of every type and size of property that is available, from undeveloped land to empty buildings available for moving in. It can also help a company find a so-called “brownfield, a property that may be contaminated, for the company to clean up and get federal tax credits.
However, the most important feature may be the map’s ability to point out properties that are GRAD (Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development) certified. Those are properties that are shovel-ready for development.
“That’s the grant that Austin (Stacy, Executive Director of the Development Authority of Burke County) just got the grant for,” said Kosek. “Part of the grant program that Austin got approved for and Burke County got approved for, is through our Rural Site Development Initiative. Once a site is GRAD certified, they can apply for maybe up to $2 million for things like infrastructure or clearing and grading, or road improvements.”
Once certified, the property is listed on the state’s website.
“That’s a critical component, which I will say we have been blessed recently with the state bringing the two projects that we announced last year,” Stacy recently told ABD. “To get that site on the state’s web page and having the state help us market, that will also be extremely helpful.”
The Augusta Economic Development Authority (AEDA) has also benefited from the GRAD program with properties in the Augusta Corporate Park on Mike Padgett Highway. Cal Wray, President of AEDA, said the mega-site planned for the Richmond and Burke County line will be GRAD certified.
Georgia has been ranked the number one Best State to do Business for 11 years. Kosek believes the site selection webpage, along with partnerships, keeps the state at the top.
“It’s our partnership with our utility partners and our local partners. But also, it’s that being able to move at the speed of business and having these kinds of resources that a company can call on, that our team of project managers at the state and our utility partners and our local partners can call on to be able to have a database like this and quickly identify sites,” he said.
The website is at https://georgia.org/site-selector
