Tifton: Tift Country | The Heartbeat of South Georgia
Agriculture, Industry, Hospitality
Welcoming and Genuine: Tyron Spearman, executive director of the Tifton-Tift County Tourism Association. Photo credit: David Parks
Southwell President and CEO Chris Dorman was looking for a family-friendly community when he brought his family to Tifton in 2013. “I was really blown away by the resources that were available in a small, rural community,” he says.
Now he hopes to remain at Southwell, a health system that includes Tift Regional Medical Center, until retirement, something he says is almost unheard of among hospital CEOs. The medical center and Tifton were “the perfect spot for me,” he says.
That sentiment is shared by many of his colleagues in leadership roles in the city and county. It reflects the unique assets that attract businesses, entrepreneurs, visitors and others to this thriving regional heartland.
Tift County, anchored by the city of Tifton, sits at the crossroads of tradition and innovation – rooted in agriculture yet diversified by manufacturing, healthcare, education and logistics. Strategically located along Interstate 75 with a history of innovation and hospitality, the county is a dynamic economic center in South Georgia.
“Our story is one of hospitality, agriculture and community,” says Tyron Spearman, executive director of the Tifton-Tift County Tourism Association. “This is a destination that feels welcoming, genuine and worth coming back to.”
Tift’s Core
Agriculture has long been the core economic driver in Tift County, deeply rooted in the region’s history and soil. Tifton’s early economy revolved around timber but shifted to agriculture in the 1900s as cleared forests left fertile soil. Today, agriculture is diversified, and the area is a major hub for row crops and high-value agriculture, including peanuts, cotton, watermelons and vegetables.
According to January’s Georgia Farm Gate Value Report for 2024, Tift contributes $225 million to the state’s $18 billion agriculture economy, ranks 22nd out of 159 counties, and supports more than 2,260 jobs. Vegetables alone contribute $104.5 million to the economy, ranking the county fifth in the state in that category. Tift also ranks first for cantaloupes, second for blackberries and strawberries, and fourth for rye.
But agriculture isn’t just farming – it fuels related manufacturing, processing and distribution, as well as education at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and research at the University of Georgia’s Tifton campus, making agriculture an anchor for the local economy and employment. It also factors into tourism revenue as Tift County ranks sixth in the state for farm tours.
The Sweet Spot
Manufacturing and distribution form a major pillar of Tift’s local economy, and the county is the business and industry center of an eight-county region, encompassing Ben Hill, Berrien, Colquitt, Cook, Irwin, Turner and Worth, according to Brian Marlowe, president and CEO of the Tift County Development Authority.
Manufacturing and Distribution: Brian Marlowe, president and CEO of the Tift County Development Authority. Photo credit: David Parks
Major companies leverage – and continue to be attracted to – Tift County’s location on I-75 and U.S. highways 82/319 to serve the Southeast market. The 1.5 million-square-foot Target Distribution Center is the county’s largest private employer, providing 800 jobs. It’s joined, among others, by American Textiles Company, Kelley Manufacturing Company, a provider of agricultural equipment, PB2, a manufacturer of peanut products, Coca-Cola, Heatcraft Refrigeration Products and Orgill, a national distributor of hardware, home improvement and building supplies.
“Our strategic location offers companies both a cost-efficient and effective way to get their products to their consumers in a timely manner,” Marlowe said in an email.
Marlowe said the development authority has purchased about 1,000 acres for industrial development since 2018, including the acquisition of a 406-acre tract near I-75. It also built two spec buildings, both leased and expanded before the original construction was even completed. A third spec building is to be completed by the end of the year.
The Friendly City
Crowd Pleaser: The Rhythm and Ribs Barbecue Festival drew 20,000 visitors last year. Photo credit: Contributed
Tifton’s convenient location generates significant tourism revenue – an estimated $206.8 million in 2024, a 4.8% increase over 2023.
“Tifton is an ideal stopping point for travelers moving through Georgia and the Southeast,” says tourism director Spearman.
Visitors come to what’s known as “The Friendly City” for conventions, sports tournaments – including a pickleball tournament in March – and more than 25 events and festivals, including the annual Rhythm and Ribs Barbecue Festival, which drew 20,000 visitors in 2025. Also popular are Tift’s two you-pick farms – Berry Good Farms and Rutland Farms – and the Georgia Museum of Agriculture & Historic Village, featuring a rural town with costumed interpreters, indoor and outdoor exhibits, an art gallery and the Vulcan Steam Train, which typically runs on Saturdays.
Tourism Economics reports that tourism dollars generated $15.8 million in state and local tax revenues in 2024, saving each Tift County household $1,018 in annual taxes.
Spearman hopes to boost tourism revenues even further by elevating “awareness of Tifton beyond a pass-through stop into a destination worth planning around.”
Popular Attraction: The Vulcan Steam Train typically runs on Saturdays. Photo credit: Contributed
Overnight visitors can stay at one of 16 hotels, with two more under construction, and eat at one of the county’s 106 restaurants, half of which are locally owned, according to Spearman. The Tifton Council for the Arts is housed at a former church built in 1900 that was transformed into the Syd Blackmarr Arts Center, which offers arts, education and cultural programming.
“We are very art-focused. We are proud of what we’ve built,” says Abbey McLaren, manager of the city’s Main Street program, an offshoot of Georgia Main Street. The statewide program promotes historic preservation, small business development, leveraging private investment, increasing tourism and more.
Healthy Tift
Healthcare, anchored by the not-for-profit Southwell, is an economic driver, a critical employment sector and an industry draw.
“As industry comes into the community, they want to know that they have a place where their employees can be treated and treated well,” says Dorman.
When Dorman arrived at Tift Regional Medical Center as the senior vice president and chief operating officer 13 years ago, he found a staff “absolutely invested and really interested in how they could become better and deliver better care.”
About a year after Dorman took the helm in 2018, Southwell Medical became the umbrella title for Tift Regional, Cook Medical Center and 25 physician practices. Dorman says the health system has invested heavily in patient-first, value-based care, focusing on the social determinants of health, the patient experience and preventive care.
Preventative Care: Tift Regional Medical Center. Photo credit: Contributed
“We know much more about our patients today than we ever have,” says Dorman. “Technology has obviously helped with that, but we also have people who are invested in learning more about our patients.”
In 2021, Tift Regional opened a new $152 million emergency department and patient tower, converting all patient rooms to private. In 2024, the medical center secured $600,000 in federal funds to upgrade its dialysis center. Now, says Dorman, it’s investing $84 million in new capital projects, including expansions to its oncology and women’s and children’s facilities.
But Dorman is most proud of building a program to help address common rural healthcare issues – recruitment and retention. Southwell offers “recruitment incentive loans” to medical students and residents if they commit three years to Southwell. The loans help students and residents cover living expenses and education debt. Once the three-year commitment ends, the incentive loans are forgiven. Dorman says the program has provided them a 10- to 15-year physician pipeline.
Health Careers: Nursing students at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College get hands-on experience while taking the blood pressure of fellow students. Photo credit: Contributed
“We currently have around 60 students, residents or fellows in that program, and that has been a game changer for our health system,” says Dorman, who adds the hospital’s physician turnover rate is 3%, compared to 8% nationally, and the overall turnover rate for its nearly 2,900 full- and part-time employees is 11%, compared to 19.5% nationally.
“Our goal is to continue to grow, expand services and do as much as we can to keep healthcare local,” says Dorman. “Know where we need to go and where we need to grow. That’s our motto here, and that’s what we’re challenging ourselves to do every day.”
Supporting Agriculture Through Education
Tifton’s major educational institutions – Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and the University of Georgia-Tifton – are vital drivers of research, economic growth and workforce development in the region.
Workforce Training: Students attend an agricultural technology class at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Photo credit: Contributed
ABAC President Tracy Brundage says the school’s mission has been to send “workforce-ready” graduates across the state since 1908, when it was founded as the Second District A&M School. “It doesn’t seem to matter who I talk to, where across the state, they have ABAC alums. We’re very proud of that.”
Brundage came in 2022 from Pennsylvania’s Keystone College, drawn to ABAC’s hands-on, experiential mission to address evolving industry needs.
Many of the college’s programs meet traditional needs – nursing, animal science, soil and water – but Brundage is proud of its newest programs: an ag technology management program that started in 2022 and the upcoming launch of a four-year elementary education program this fall to help address the rural teacher shortage. “We need to be relevant,” she says. “We need to be innovative. We need to be revolutionary.”
In 2024, ABAC became a full four-year college and joined the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which Brundage says has increased visitors to Tifton. The school hit its highest enrollment ever last fall with more than 4,000 students. Brundage says with in-state tuition under $4,000 a year, more than 55% graduate with no debt. In fiscal year 2024, ABAC brought $128.2 million to the region’s economy.
“We’re rooted in tradition but focused on the future,” says Brundage. “We’re going to change lives. That’s what we do day in and day out. That’s our sense of purpose.”
Breeding Programs: Plants grow in a greenhouse at UGA Tifton. Photo credit: Contributed
Nearby, UGA-Tifton, which began as the Coastal Plain Experiment Station, has been focusing for more than 100 years on research and extension services to support Georgia’s agriculture. “One of the reasons this campus was founded here is [that] it’s in the heart of agriculture,” says Assistant Dean of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences Tim Grey. The first undergraduate students began classes at UGA-Tifton more than 20 years ago. The mission remains specialized research and support, Grey says. That includes breeding programs for blueberries (Georgia’s 10th-biggest agricultural commodity) and turfgrass (13th-biggest commodity), along with pest and disease management, and new technologies such as self-driving tractors and drones – all to make agriculture more productive and efficient.
“We promote and provide information that can make growers successful,” says Grey of UGA-Tifton’s 600 employees. “In terms of dollars, it’s probably priceless. I don’t say that in jest. It’s hard to put a number on the magnitude of what the information that comes out of this area can mean to a lot of different people.”
Falling in Love with Tifton
Since the mid-1980s, Tifton has emphasized downtown rejuvenation, using a toolkit of tax incentives, low-cost loans and grants to encourage new business and renovation.
Main Street’s McLaren says she remembers stretches of downtown blight from her high school days. “We’ve worked hard collectively as a community to combat that,” she says, citing reductions in vacancies as the biggest change over the past decade and a hope to reduce them even further in the future. McLaren says the best description of Tifton today is “vibrant.”
Tifton has a Georgia Exceptional Main Street designation, and the residential historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
In the 10 years that Julie Smith has served as Tifton’s mayor, she says she’s seen a lot of growth and development, yet “we’ve kept our personality, a small town that’s growing.”
The key, she says, is smart growth. “Not just willy-nilly growth for growth’s sake. … I want Tifton to stay on a path of excellence.”
County Manager Jim Carter sees that excellence.
“I think if [people] from some of our metropolitan areas spent a little bit of time down here, [they] would fall in love and decide to stay,” he says.
A Blessing and a Curse
Tifton’s biggest challenge is the division caused by the parallel railroad tracks and U.S. Highway 82 running through the center of town. “It brings in tourists, it brings in commerce … but then the flip side of that is it divides the community,” says Smith. “No one part of the community, in my opinion, should be growing faster than the other or have greater impact on the future of the community. It should all be equal.”
In 2018, the city bought land south of U.S. 82 that had been home to a trailer park. Smith says residents were relocated to better housing. The city then used SPLOST funds and a $750,000 Community Development Block Grant to build a youth development center that opened in 2022. It provides tutoring and after-school programs. “That’s been really transformative to that neighborhood,” says Smith. In the same area, IDP Properties partnered with the Tifton Urban Redevelopment Agency to renovate an old apartment complex for lower-income families. Nine Oaks Apartments, which opened in 2023, has 56 units and includes a playground and a communal garden.
“We really focused a lot of resources … to stabilize this area, to bring it up to par with the rest of the community,” she says.
In July, the city of Tifton, the Tifton Urban Redevelopment Agency, and the Downtown Development Authority announced the acquisition of the 9.7-acre property located on South Main Street, commonly known as the Short & Paulk Supply Company property. The city is seeking community input to determine how to use it. In addition, the city has been seeking proposals from developers to build individual owner-occupied housing on 6.3 acres located at the corner of South Park Avenue and Old Omega Road. Smith dreams of “One Tifton” with neighborhoods throughout the city where people can own homes and feel safe.
Smart Growth: Tifton Mayor Julie Smith. Photo credit: David Parks
“It’s my biggest challenge,” says Smith, “and it’s also my biggest joy when I see the success … We’re going to move forward, and we’re going to carry this vision forward.”
Tift & Tifton Grow
Small businesses have long been the backbone of Tift’s local business ecosystem. In 2007, the Georgia Department of Economic Development designated the county an “entrepreneur-friendly community,” reflecting local efforts to support small-business growth. The latest data from the U.S. Small Business Administration says Tift has 4,600 small businesses – more than 96% of all businesses in the county. Of those, 632 have fewer than 20 employees – nearly 93% of Tift County businesses. They are what Smith calls “the heartbeat of the community.”
“They’re the ones that we find will sponsor the games and support the school system through paying for jerseys for the football team or whatever it is,” says Smith. “So small business development is really, really important.”
The entire county has experienced substantial growth over the past five years, and County Manager Carter believes the potential for future growth in the county is “extremely high.”
“It’s a diamond in the rough,” says Carter, citing the county’s many amenities and recent improvements, including a $13 million upgrade to the E.B. Hamilton sports complex and $22 million in road upgrades. “The level of services that we offer is, I think, on par with larger communities.”
Carter says the county has issued 1,500 building permits outside incorporated limits over the past five years and has seen significant growth in subdivisions. The key, says Carter, will be preserving the county’s character, balancing access to all that Tifton has to offer with preservation of the area’s vital agriculture.
“We’ll continue to grow and develop,” says Smith, “but we want to be true to our roots and what our story is.”
Sips and Stories: Jorjanne Paulk, retail and events manager and co-owner of Paulk Vineyards Tifton Tasting Room. Photo credit: David Parks
Local Flavor
A Taste of Tift
The impetus behind the October opening of the Paulk Vineyards Tifton Tasting Room was tardiness.“Every time we had someone attending an event [at the Paulk Vineyards in Wray] from Tifton, they were about 10 to 15 minutes late because it was just a little bit farther than what they realized,” says Jorjanne Paulk, retail and events manager and co-owner with with her husband, Chris. “So, I said, ‘Tifton is far enough away that it warrants having its own tasting room, but it’s close enough that we already have fans there.’”
In May 2021, the Tifton City Council unanimously passed an ordinance allowing wineries and breweries to operate in town without a full liquor license. A month later, Paulk visited the two abandoned 5th Street buildings that would become the Tasting Room, featuring the vineyard’s muscadine wines.
The Paulks closed on the now-connected buildings in late 2024, taking advantage of the full toolkit of tax incentives, loans and grants. They worked with the Downtown Development Authority and the Historic Preservation Board to update and preserve the buildings, creating an event space that accommodates up to 75 people and a bright, comfortable, “more upscale” lounge with exposed brick walls and multiple seating areas, where Paulk hopes people feel comfortable hanging out. “We really want people to be able to celebrate good times together,” says Paulk.
Paulk says it was also important as a family-run business to create a family-friendly space that offers something for everyone, including non-alcoholic slushies, soda creations and charcuterie boards.
Abby McLaren, Tifton’s Main Street manager, says the tasting room “brings the vineyard into town.”
“It’s brought a significant economic impact to downtown by activating a space in a highly visible corner along Highway 82, right in the heart of downtown,” she says. “[It] has drawn new foot traffic and energy to a street that has otherwise seen a lack of investment or no activity and strengthened our downtown’s appeal as a destination.”
Paulk says educating people about the vineyard’s muscadine wines is a big part of her job and that of her seven employees. Muscadine grapes are native and grow best in the southeastern U.S. They’re larger than many other grapes and have thick skins and seeds.
“Just last year, that wine was actually a grape growing on a vine in my backyard,” says Paulk. “It’s a neat story to be able to tell, and we really are honored to be able to do it.”
