Economic Development Around the State: From Hall County to Georgia Tech’s Science Square
LaFayette Food, Hall County Expansion, Medical Research, Darien Cold Storage, Columbus Plastics and EV HQ.
LaFayette Food: Pilgrim’s is investing $400 million to build a prepared foods facility in Walker County in several phases. The company, which already operates seven food production facilities in the state employing some 7,500 people, will begin hiring in 2027 for the first phase, creating 630 jobs at full capacity. The facility will produce a variety of fully cooked chicken products to support its fast-growing prepared food business.Hall County Expansion: King’s Hawaiian, which has had a presence in Georgia since 2010, is expanding its Oakwood facility yet again. The $54 million project will add a new production line at its existing 150,000-square-foot facility and will produce additional flavors of King’s Hawaiian Pretzel Bites when it begins operations in the second quarter of 2026. The expansion will create more than 135 new jobs.
Photo credit: Tibor Janosi Mozes
Medical Research: Shriners Hospitals for Children, a nonprofit pediatric specialty healthcare system, is establishing a new pediatric medical research facility at Georgia Tech’s Science Square in Atlanta. The $153 million investment will create 470 new jobs. Founded in 1922, Shriners Children’s focuses on orthopedic and neuromuscular conditions, burn injuries, spinal cord injury rehabilitation and cleft lip and palate, with a commitment to education and research.
Darien Cold Storage: Ti Cold and Karis Cold have broken ground on a new $60 million cold storage facility for PermaCold Logistics in McIntosh County. Located in the Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development site Tidewaters Industrial Park, the project will support 50 jobs when phase 1 construction is complete next spring.
Columbus Plastics: Sigma Plastics Group is opening a facility in Columbus. The company will hire 100 people for the $39.2 million project, which includes a 75,000-square-foot expansion of an existing facility and a new 75,000-square-foot warehouse.
EV HQ: Electric vehicle company Rivian is establishing a 45,000-square-foot East Coast headquarters in Atlanta that will employ 500. The office will open by the end of 2025 and is within a short drive of the company’s larger $5 billion investment in Stanton Springs. 
