Gainesville | Hall County: Waves of Success
Collaboration, Education and Revitalization
Visitors to Gainesville-Hall County are greeted by “the Wave,” the city’s logo that evokes waves in the pastel blues and greens of Lake Lanier. It’s emblazoned on signs, an overpass and murals.
Like the colors that overlap to create the stylish image, city and county officials blend their efforts to enhance the area both for business and the community. And the world is taking notice.
Forbes magazine has rated Gainesville-Hall County as one of the “Best Small Places for Business & Careers” for 10 years, and for nine consecutive years it has ranked in the Milken Institute’s Top 10 Best Performing Small Metros, according to Tim Evans, senior vice president of economic development at the chamber. The 2024 Milken Institute report named it as the Top Small Metro Area in Georgia and among the top three in the nation for Best-Performing Small Metros.
Poised for Growth: Glennis Barnes, chair of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce. Photo credit: Joann Vitelli
Business Facilities magazine named it in the top three Small Metros in the Nation for Best Business Climate in its 2024 “20th Annual Rankings Report.”
“This is the place to be,” says Glennis Barnes, chair of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce. “The amenities are here. Work, play, walk. It’s important not to just grow, but to make sure we have the right industry.”
Since 2020, the chamber’s public-private partnership, the Economic Development Council, has implemented 53 economic development opportunities which have added a $1.54 billion investment and 3,500 new jobs in the Gainesville-Hall County metro area, according to Evans.
“Almost half of those were new industries and developments,” says Evans.
Some businesses have been a part of this area along Lake Lanier for years. Mars-Wrigley has been producing chewing gum in Hall County for more than 50 years, and Cottrell Trailers, a builder of car-haulers, has been in Gainesville since 1973. This year, Cottrell is putting the finishing touches on an almost 550,000-square-foot expansion at its campus in Gainesville’s 85 Business Park, located off Interstate 985.
Nearby in the industrial park, CJ Foodville, a subsidiary of South Korea-based CJ Group, is expected to complete its $47 million food manufacturing headquarters by 2025. It will produce bakery items for the company’s TOUS les JOURS-branded café-bakeries and is expected to employ just under 300.
King’s Hawaiian has been baking in Hall County since 2010. Employing around 850 currently, it will complete its latest addition in 2026, according to Joe Leonardo, senior vice president and COO.
“Hall County in general is very business friendly, very collaborative,” he says. “The stuff that the chamber does, that [Lanier Technical College] does, and basically all the authorities, is really focused on making it a great place to work, a great place to be an employer and an employee.”
Hall County has proven to be a good model for building relationships. Leonardo recently headed up a site selection for a new company plant in the Midwest. “The direction I was given from Mark Taira, the president of the company, was to ‘go find the next Hall County in the Midwest,’” he says.
Hall County Commissioner Billy Powell is not surprised. “The better we serve the community and the more efficient our process, the happier our customers and citizens will be,” he says.
He adds that Hall County commissioners and the nine municipalities in the county all work together. “When an industry visits, they see that,” he says. “It puts them at ease.”
Successful Tenure: Kit Dunlap, the president and CEO of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, is retiring after 26 years of service. Photo credit: Eric Sun
Community and local government support is one of the biggest pluses in the area, says Phil Sutton, vice president of administration for Kubota Manufacturing of America, which built its U.S. headquarters in Gainesville in 1988, growing from 38 employees to more than 3,500. He says its current expansion will open in 2025, adding 500 jobs and establishing Gainesville as the largest Kubota manufacturing facility in the world.
Sutton says the company has benefitted from partnering with local schools. “The schools, including Hall County and Gainesville City, have been a great work-based tool. We have about 60 students in work-based learning,” he says.
Both University of North Georgia and Lanier Technical College students participate in internships at the company, which makes tractors and their parts.
The quality of educational facilities matter, too. “We have been able to recruit people from all over the country that have melded right in here very well,” he says. “One of the big things I hear from people – the first thing they ask about is schools for their children, then also higher education. ‘Is this a place I can send my child to school, then on to college, and expect them to thrive?’”
Kubota’s facilities are located along state Route 365, which extends from I-985 and is convenient to the new Blue Ridge Connector, Northeast Georgia’s new inland port. “It’s a great economic boost to the region,” says Wesley Barrell, general manager of inland operations for the Georgia Ports Authority.
Barrell adds that about 30,000 fewer trucks will be making the 710-mile round trip from the ports, creating a significant savings on infrastructure upkeep and reducing the carbon footprint. Opening in 2026, the inland port will employ about 20 people but will have a broader impact. Some 9,400 people in Hall County are currently in industries that rely on Georgia ports.
A favorable location makes that possible: Hall County has access to Interstate 85, I-985/state Route 365 and Georgia 400. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is around 65 miles away. Amtrak provides passenger rail, and freight business is served by both Norfolk-Southern Railway and CSX Transportation.
City Advantages
Improving Productivity: Kubota Manufacturing of America’s expanded facility will open in 2025, adding 500 jobs. Photo credit: contributed
Gainesville’s downtown surrounds a park square and is bustling with restaurants and retail. Just a few years ago, streets were quiet after 5 p.m. Now, well into the evening, there are people on the sidewalks, eating, drinking and socializing, says Jeff Payne, chair of Capstone Property Group. The Gainesville native was an ophthalmologist for 30 years in his hometown before forming his real estate development company.
Capstone’s developments are a big part of the town’s revitalization, says Chamber President and CEO Kit Dunlap, who recently announced she’s retiring. “Being from here, his investment in downtown is personal,” she says.
Those developments include a 130-room Courtyard by Marriott, a 154-unit apartment building, and a new “eatertainment” block.
“I’m the type [of] person who hates to tear something down,” Payne says. So he designed a downtown event venue in the historic Walton-Jackson Building.
Another downtown hotel with a rooftop bar and a new five-story mixed-use development are in the planning phase for Capstone. The development will include office and retail space and a brewery. “We are working to create an entertainment district downtown,” Payne says.
He says the excitement started with the Gainesville Renaissance project, built by Roddy Properties on land owned by former Coca-Cola CEO Doug Ivester.
The three-story building, facing the downtown square, houses retail, restaurants, Brenau University’s Lynn J. Darby School of Psychology and Adolescent Counseling, and residential units.
Gainesville Mayor Sam Couvillon says that prior to the development of the Renaissance, he met with Ivester, and having feet on the streets both during the day and night was the strategy. “We knew if we did that, we would have a vibrant downtown,” he adds.
Payne is quick to credit the city of Gainesville as being helpful. “They want to make downtown as good as possible and they work with you to try to make that happen,” he says.
Vibrant Community: Sam Couvillon, mayor of Gainesville, in front of the Renaissance Project. Photo credit: Joann Vitelli
Couvillon says much of that is due to the city’s exceptional staff. “Instead of looking for ways to say no, we try to find a way to say yes,” he says.
Hall County’s second-largest city is Flowery Branch, and it is also becoming a destination. Phase 1 of its revitalization, completed in 2023, added apartments, restaurants, retail and an event plaza through a public-private partnership. Phase 2 is being planned.
“Through the fall we have over 50 events scheduled for the farmers market area,” says Mayor Ed Asbridge. “It’s a quaint downtown that people like to live near, and they like to walk to the restaurants.”
Three new housing developments near downtown are under construction and Asbridge adds there have been inquiries about building a distillery and a microbrewery.
Workforce Opportunities
Lanier Technical College is located on the I-985/State Route 365 corridor, convenient to many of the industries for which it provides workforce.
“Our enrollment is at record levels and has been for three years,” says Lanier Tech President Tim McDonald, adding that year over year, the school averages a 95% job placement rate in the student’s field of study.
Just down the road, Brenau University is launching a Police Mental Health Certificate through the Lynn J. Darby School of Psychology and Adolescent Counseling, to meet the need for mental health professionals to work as co-responders with law enforcement.
“The new certificate was created in partnership with the Gainesville Police Department,” Brenau President David L. Barnett said in an email. “We continue to work together on initiatives to address the mental health needs of the local community, as we share a common goal with Gainesville-Hall County and all of our partners – working together toward the betterment of our shared community.”
Brenau also launched the Darby Scholars Program to provide financial support to students interested in becoming frontline mental health clinicians who respond with law enforcement officers. The program was established through a financial gift from the Melvin Douglas and Victoria Kay Ivester Foundation.
Quaint Downtown: Ed Asbridge, mayor of Flowery Branch. Photo credit: Eric Sun
This June, leaders from the University of North Georgia toured local businesses in a variety of industries.
“I am very focused on relevance [and whether we are] answering the needs of the economy, particularly in Northeast Georgia and Hall County.” says Michael Shannon, president of UNG, which has a campus in Gainesville. “What I took from the tour is yes, we are delivering. We learned a lot. Now we get to rally our team around inspiring our students. It’s exciting, because there are so many opportunities out there. And they’re all hiring.”
He adds that the university is working to help prospective and current students as well as alumni, understand all the opportunities available.
“There’s just so many things happening in Hall County – it’s really growing. All the logistics going on, the port is big and that connects back to the poultry industry and cold storage infrastructure,” he says. “What we’re working on is knitting all those together and showing our students those possibilities.”
Gainesville is served by both Gainesville City Schools, a charter school system with 8,000 students, and Hall County Schools, with 28,000 students throughout the county. Both offer work-based learning, advanced placement courses and dual-enrollment programs.
In 2019, Gainesville City Schools partnered with the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government to do a workforce study, then aligned its career pathways to those needs, according to Superintendent Jeremy Williams.
Addressing Community Needs: Brenau University. Photo credit: contributed
“The big ones that came out of that were in healthcare,” he says. “Gainesville High School now has three healthcare science classrooms and teachers.”
Among Hall County’s initiatives are a new Meat Science Center that opened this school year and the Howard E. Ivester Early College, a dual enrollment campus in Gainesville, that students can access using school transportation.
“It has a 98% to 99% pass rate,” says Kevin Bales, Hall County deputy superintendent. “It’s been a very important opportunity for our students to start in their post-secondary careers.”
The new Meat Science Center is an extension of the system’s agribusiness program. It will teach students about the industry, from hooves on the ground to packaged product.
New Medical Facilities
The five-hospital Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) will open both its new patient tower and a new inpatient rehabilitation facility in Gainesville in February.
Job Possibilities: Michael Shannon, president of University of North Georgia, walks with Phil Sutton, vice president of Kubota Manufacturing of America, during the university leaders’ 2024 Nighthawk Impact Tour of local businesses. Photo credit: contributed
“We’ve been able to continue growing at a tremendous pace while also maintaining high-quality care and patient safety, which is all due to our medical staff and 12,000-plus employees bringing their best every day,” says Carol Burrell, president and CEO of Northeast Georgia Health System, who announced this year that she is retiring. “I always say we don’t have to be perfect, but we should strive to be better tomorrow than we are today – in everything from respectful compassion to responsible financial stewardship – because that’s what the people we care for deserve.”
One of only six Level I Trauma Centers in Georgia, NGHS was the first in the state to perform a new non-invasive liver cancer treatment and the first to use the da Vinci 5 surgical system for surgery.
The Longstreet Clinic, a multi-specialty physician-led practice with more than 200 providers, has a large presence in Hall County and the Northeast Georgia region. Longstreet Clinic physicians in varying specialties are consistently recognized by both Georgia Trend and Atlanta magazine as Top Doctors. Dr. Betsy Grunch was recognized this year by Newsweek as one of the best 150 spine surgeons in the country.
Longstreet has locations in Gainesville and eight nearby towns, offering more than 20 specialties. CEO Mimi Collins says Longstreet was the second practice in the state to be certified by the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative.
Hands-On Learning: The new Meat Science Center at the Hall County School District’s Agribusiness Center gives students real-world training in meat processing. Photo credit: contributed
High-Quality Healthcare: Carol Burrell, CEO of Northeast Georgia Health System. Photo credit: contributed
“Two of our oncology locations – Braselton and Toccoa – [have] Longstreet oncologists and NGHS radiation oncologists in the same facility, so our patients can have comprehensive care in one location,” she says. “We have also developed the only comprehensive breast program in the Northeast Georgia area where all the imaging technology, surgeons and medical oncologist are in one location in our Gainesville facility. Our goal is to help a woman move through that continuum of care in a pace and timeline that she dictates, so we can speed the process from ‘abnormal result’ to the consult with a surgeon if appropriate to biopsy. We want that very stressful process to be as efficient as possible to get to a plan of care timely.”
That kind of comfort is one of the hard-to-define attributes among many in Gainesville-Hall County.
Local Flavor
Dragons on the Lake
Teamwork Wins: Robyn Lynch, executive director of the Lake Lanier Olympic Park and Gainesville’s director of tourism, and Tracy Barth, director of the Atlanta Dragon Boat Festival, stand in front of some of the boats on race day. Photo credit: Eric Sun
In the early morning of a September Saturday, the stillness of Lake Lanier is broken by the rhythmic pounding of drums, stirring the adrenaline of the rowers who power forward in the Atlanta Hong Kong Dragon Boat Race.
The race has been held at Lake Lanier Olympic Park in Gainesville since 1998 and is part of the Atlanta Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, billed as the largest Hong Kong cultural event in Georgia. Ten to 20 rowers sit in pairs in the long narrow boats, each adorned with a colorful dragon’s head at the bow. The drummer sits behind the dragon, and a steerer, also known as the coxswain, guides the boat from the stern.
Businesses, fraternities and other groups send teams, and while strength is a factor, teamwork wins races. Traditionally, there are also teams made of breast cancer survivors, and they are celebrated with a special flower ceremony that involves tossing pink carnations into the water.
During the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, rowing and paddling events were held at this venue. Since then, Lake Lanier Rowing Club and Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club have continued to use the buildings.
“In 2015, the original committee that helped bring the Olympics to Gainesville got back together,” says Robyn Lynch, executive director of Lake Lanier Olympic Park and Gainesville’s director of tourism. “They started a capital campaign to get some of the improvements that needed to be made.”
The city of Gainesville annexed the property in 2019, and the area’s hotel/motel tax was increased from 6% to 8%, specifying that the extra 2% would be spent on tourism. One result is the Boathouse, a $21 million event venue, with 50,000 square feet of space. It opened in March 2024. “We’re booking into 2026,” Lynch says, including weddings and corporate events.
Besides conference rooms and lobby space, the catering kitchen and workrooms a 16-foot-wide porch with a covered veranda that will hold 125 people looks out onto Lake Lanier.
“That view is the perfect place to watch the sunset,” says Lynch.
Beneath the boathouse is the club level, where the rowing and canoe and kayak clubs have office and meeting space, a gym and storage for boats. Lynch says that after this year, the operation will be self-sustaining.
While famous for its poultry, Gainesville has also adopted the dragon as one of its symbols, celebrating the culture and historical significance of the Dragonboat Race.
The image is also part of public art, supported by Vision 2030, an initiative of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce. The interactive dragon on Roosevelt Square downtown is 14 1/2 feet high and 30 feet long. Designed by Todd Vaught with Atlanta-based Confluence Design, the dragon was paid for by Friends of the Dragon, whose names are listed nearby in granite. At various times of day, the dragon comes to life – its eyes light up, steam issues from its nose.
