Liberty County, located about 45 minutes south of Savannah, was so named because it was the home of two signers of the Declaration of Independence. Liberty County Development Authority CEO Brynn Grant said, to her, it means that Liberty County is a revolutionary place, home to revolutionary thinkers.
These thinkers include those who were, in 1998, forward-thinking enough in this small, rural county to buy land in 2000 to build two industrial parks―Tradeport East Business Center just off U.S. Route 84 near Sunbury, Ga., and Tradeport West Business Center, on Oglethorpe Highway in Midway, Ga.―long before there was a Hyundai Metaplant in neighboring Bryan County or two busy ports less than an hour’s drive away in either direction.
“This organization made strategic investments, risky investments to create jobs for our county,” Grant said. “I think this organization was ahead of its time, especially for a county of our size. Not many were making these kinds of advances and it was beginning to be recognized that you needed to have a developed product that somebody could locate on.”
As part of a new state program aimed at fostering economic development in rural communities, the state of Georgia announced a $2 million grant to the Liberty County Development Authority to build an access road to the Tradeport West Business Center, accelerating the build-out of one of the two industrial parks 20-plus years in the making.
Six local development authorities received a combined $9.3 million in grants through OneGeorgia Authority’s Rural Site Development Initiative to identify, assess, and develop new industrial sites through such activities as site studies and land grading.
Tradeport East was developed first due to its proximity to I-95, with the idea that as the park developed and the funds became available, they would be injected into Tradeport West, which has assets that the East site does not, such as rail access. The funds will build about 7,000 feet of road from Highway 17 to service the Tradeport West site.
“This site was always slated for heavier, larger manufacturing to complement the Midway Industrial Park, which is just north of it on Highway 84,” said Carmen Cole, LCDA’s chief operating officer. “I think the state was looking for sites that are rail-served and larger, that could accommodate some of the larger projects we’re seeing, so while this does have rail, we can put non-rail-type projects in this park and Tradeport East.”
The project LCDA presented to the state will cost about $4.7 million total, and the work includes the road, water and sewer, stormwater drainage, and potentially additional site clearing and grading. Cole said they’ve already put in close to $12 million in Tradeport West. The timeline for completing the project with state funds is two years, but Cole said they’ll probably have it completed within 18 months. The 1,200-square-foot park has already received a number of queries for manufacturers and logistics that could be housed there.
“And this [grant] will be a boost to that, absolutely,” Grant said. “You want a road, you want a shovel-ready site. We must continue to do our job to try to attract investment that creates quality jobs.”
Those quality jobs can be game-changers for many residents of Liberty County, where the poverty rate of 16% exceeds the state’s rate 3%, and where, according to research by the United Way of the Coastal Empire, 45% of residents fall within the parameters of asset-limited, income-constrained and employed (ALICE) but struggle to earn “enough to make a modest household budget work.”
Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for the Savannah Morning News, covering the municipalities, and community and cultural programs. You can reach her at DAmbus@gannett.com.