Darien | McIntosh County: Hidden Gem

Protecting Natural Resources: Tom Draffin, president and CEO of the Mcintosh County Industrial Development Authority. Photo credit Eliot VanOttern.

The McIntosh County Industrial Development Authority bought an additional 247 acres adjacent to its existing Tidewaters Industrial Park in 2023 and set about sweetening its appeal to industry.

“One of the biggest things that happened is the Public Service Commission awarded a $19 million grant to Atlanta Gas Light to provide improved natural gas to the city of Darien and that includes our park, which had very limited natural gas availability,” says Tom Draffin, president and CEO of the McIntosh IDA. Work is now underway on that project, and without that grant, he says, the utility giant likely would not have been interested in expanding delivery to the sparsely populated county.

J.B. Harris Transport and Logistics is the first member of McIntosh’s industrial renaissance to open for business, providing processing services for heavy equipment moving through the Port of Brunswick. The 26-acre site is packed with excavators, telescopic forklifts, rollers, cranes and other heavy construction vehicles. When the company moves to its second phase, it will add another 21 acres and a permanent 30,000-square-foot building to replace its current temporary one. It employs 28 people, a number that will double when it expands.

What’s involved in processing services for equipment like that? “We do make-ready stuff, install attachments, decals, we might swap some tires, install some GPS systems, backup cameras, things like that,” says Josh Harris, president of the company, which is headquartered in Newnan and has operations in several states.

Meanwhile, the building Draffin describes as the largest in the county’s history began taking shape this year. The 215,000-square-foot cold storage facility being erected by Ti Cold and Karis Cold for PermaCold Logistics represents a $60 million investment.

“People don’t yet understand that, because we just haven’t had that kind of investment before,” Draffin says, estimating it will account for 8.5% of McIntosh’s tax digest.

And that brings up a point underlying the urgency of economic development here. Large swaths of the county do not appear on the tax digest. Draffin estimates that 60,000 acres are owned by the state of Georgia (think Sapelo Island, Fort King George historical site, for example) and another 30,000 acres by the federal government (Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge, Blackbeard Island, the Townsend bombing range, used mainly but not exclusively by Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort). That means fewer taxpayers to shoulder the costs of local government.

Logan Stuller, account manager at Ti Cold, says the Darien site was selected because of location. “It’s a really good spot between the Savannah and Jacksonville ports. This is kind of a strategic stopping point. This location gives us a lot of flexibility, being off [I-95],” he says.

Promoting Locally Caught Fish: Kat Hoyt, president and CEO of the Darien-McIntosh Chamber of Commerce. Photo credit: Eliot VanOtteren

Stuller says the completion target is end of Q1 2026, and the first phase will employ between 50 and 60 people – significant in a county where Draffin estimates more than 3,800 residents drive across county lines to work. When finished, the building will feature 30,000 pallet positions, predominantly for frozen goods but with the flexibility to convert to refrigeration. Much of that capacity is committed but some is available, Stuller says, and both the building and the site are expandable. Customers will include seafood processors but other frozen foods as well.

“We’re using a state-of-the-art, low-charge ammonia refrigeration system, and we will be offering blast freezing capabilities within the space using QFM (quick free modular) equipment by Tippman Engineering,” Stuller says.

Also on the frozen food front, Ye’s Food Manufacturing expects a fall opening for its gyoza dumpling manufacturing plant, built in refurbished quarters near the industrial park.

An industrial wastewater pump manufacturer has committed to yet a third site at the expanded industrial park.

A new life may be in the works for the old Darien Outlet Mall property, a massive, abandoned retail complex visible from I-95. The property has been vacant for about a decade, but a new owner is in the wings.

Forino Co. has submitted a letter of intent to redevelop the property “into a vibrant residential and commercial hub that will serve the community and stimulate local economic growth,” according to an emailed statement from Eric Donahue, director of real estate for Forino Co.

Transformational Moment: Builders and local officials broke ground in July on a new PermaCold Logistics cold storage facility, which is expected to open next year. Photo contributed.

Longtime Darien industries include well-established seafood processing plants devoted to handling local and regional catches – which brings us to the question of location. “Where our industrial parks are is sort of sequestered from the rest of the community, so we don’t threaten our waterways, we don’t threaten our natural resources which are so much a part of life here,” Draffin says.

Shrimp: No Small Impact

Here’s the home of the state crustacean, the white shrimp, and its fellow harvestable resources – the crab, the oyster and even, with mariculture, the “farmed” little neck clam – all active incomes in McIntosh. The shrimping industry in Georgia is waning. Twenty-five years ago, 267 shrimp trawlers were based in six coastal counties, but today there are only 55 boats based out of Georgia and 33 of them are from McIntosh County, according to information compiled by Julie Califf, a data specialist with the Fisheries Dependent Statistics of Georgia DNR’s Coastal Resources Division.

McIntosh County also accounts for the lion’s share of value of the annual shrimp harvest. In 2024, the statewide shrimp catch was valued at more than $7 million, and nearly $4 million of that, or 57%, came in at McIntosh docks.

Waning or not, shrimping is as much a part of McIntosh County’s identity as it is of its economy. The annual Blessing of the Fleet, held every spring, is the community’s biggest civic celebration. Shrimp boats are featured on the business cards of Darien Mayor Hugh “Bubba” Hodge and McIntosh County Schools Superintendent Melissa H. Williams. The tasty crustacean shows up on locally vended merchandise and restaurants across the board – from the plush water view restaurant inside the Oaks on the River hotel to the blue-collar vibe at B and J’s Steak and Seafood, which boast about their shrimp dishes.

Local shrimpers face crushing competition from imported product, and the Darien-McIntosh Chamber of Commerce has joined the fray.

Cool Investment: Rendering of the 215,000-square-foot cold storage facility being constructed by Ti Cold and Karis Cold for PermaCold Logistics. Photo credit: contributed.

Chamber President and CEO Kat Hoyt says her organization was disappointed that during the 2025 session of the state legislature, House Bill 117 didn’t clear the Senate. The bill, which could still resurface next session, would require restaurants to either label their menus or post signs if they serve imported shrimp or other imported seafood. Now, Hoyt says, the chamber is devising its own answer – a certification program that will tell diners, specifically out-of-town diners who might not otherwise know, if they are being served local seafood in McIntosh restaurants.

“We don’t have an official name for the program yet, but it will be a ‘Georgia Wild Caught’ recognition where we will be certifying restaurants by finding out who their distributors are,” Hoyt says. The program will cover all of McIntosh County and will be conducted by the chamber’s tourism promotion department, she says.

Shrimp have also infiltrated the curriculum at the McIntosh County Schools. There, high school students can choose a pathway, or career immersion experience, in commercial fishery, with such courses as Seamanship and Watchkeeping and Commercial Fishery, Management and Fisheries Science.

Williams says about a fourth of the students who opt for that pathway come from families already in the seafood business.

Williams helms a school system with one elementary school, one middle school and one high school.

“Without a strong education program, you don’t have a strong business community,” she says. Over the past six years, the system has shown improvement in performance and school climate ratings. She says recently elected Sheriff Thornell “T.K.” King has strongly supported the school safety/security program, which includes a school resource officer for each school.

Natural Beauty: Darien has long been known for its marshland landscapes. Photo credit: contributed.

Development and Jobs

Art Lucas spent his childhood in McIntosh County. After 40 years in business in Atlanta, he retired to Glynn County on the coast and began to dabble in development. Coming across the bridge into Darien, he spied what every developer dreams of.

Reeling in Business: Judy Russell Dodd, director of the Darien Downtown Development Authority. Photo credit: Eliot VanOtteren.

“There used to be an old factory, a seafood processing plant, that was probably built back in the ’30s or early ’40s, and it was a nasty kind of old factory, with maybe some shacks added onto it as they expanded. Here it is on a river bluff, which is a beautiful piece of property. It probably made sense at the time they built it, but not now,” Lucas says. He set about negotiating with the IDA, which owned the property, and secured it.

Fast forward about six or seven years to the present day. Now, the bluff features 12 waterfront condos and a 53-room boutique hotel with an upscale restaurant and bar and a heated outdoor pool overlooking the river.

Judy Russell Dodd, director of the Darien Downtown Development Authority, explains how grant funds totaling more than $1.6 million from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs have enabled the city to undertake additional improvements. Predictably, the biggest part of those improvements are in the water – the day docks, which provide free dawn-to-dusk docking for up to 24 boats right by the historic downtown. But the grant also provided for construction of a parking lot downtown and sealing and restriping pavement on Broad Street. Finishing touches came in the form of a $50,000 T-Mobile Hometown Grant, which covered new downtown signage, benches and trash receptacles.

Scenic Location: Oaks on the River Boutique Resort is located alongside Darien’s riverside bluff. Photo credit: contributed.

Dodd says the docks have reeled in additional business from boat traffic that works its way into the Darien River from the Intracoastal Waterway. “The beauty of this since the day it opened, boats have come in here and [visitors are] getting out of the boat and they’re going to eat in a restaurant and it’s just working,” she says. Not all of Darien and McIntosh’s strengths are shiny and new. The place has plenty of major multigenerational businesses, from fourth-generation shrimpers to The Darien News, a weekly newspaper that’s been in the same family for nearly 75 years.

Mary Lou Forsyth is the president of the Darien Telephone Company, which her grandparents started, and her grandchildren are among the 41 employees that make this the largest private employer in the county.

“We’ve been here since 1911. We had 7,500 landlines at one time, and now we’re down to 1,200 or 1,500, but we have our broadband customers,” says Forsyth. “We do provide a good service and that is what keeps us in business.”

Annual Celebration: Darien’s Blessing of the Fleet is held every spring. Photo credit: contributed.

The company is a stalwart supporter of community projects. It also publishes an annual telephone directory, complete with home addresses, and on the street outside the main office stands a working pay phone where it costs 35 cents to place a local call. Employees report it is a popular place for young people to pose for Instagram photos.

Another community mainstay is Southeastern Bank, where Jay Torbert is president and CEO. Headquartered in Darien, the bank has 12 locations stretching from Richmond Hill to northern Florida. Chartered as The Darien Bank in 1888, it holds one of the longest continually active bank charters in the state, Torbert says.

Torbert says the bank formed a foundation two years ago to maximize its community support. “We’ve been supporting our community since day one, probably since 1888, but this allows us to go a little deeper and focus on some of the charitable and nonprofit organizations in our communities,” he says.

Other Communities

Historical Place: St. Cybrian’s Episcopal Church, built in 1876 for the area’s Black congregation, was constructed of tabby and named for an African saint. Photo credit: contributed.

Darien serves as McIntosh County’s only official municipality, but other communities in the county – Eulonia, Townsend and Shellman Bluff, among others – retain a strong sense of identity despite lacking official standing. The northern portion of the county, in particular, is home to upscale gated communities that attract retirees and owners of second homes. How upscale? One has a private airstrip, and a couple are equestrian oriented.

Sapelo Hammock Golf Course, a semi-private golf course in northern McIntosh, went bankrupt after the 2008 real estate crash. In 2010, a group of area investors banded together and bought it. When that group lost money, the financial structure had to be changed. In 2017, a preferred stock offering enticed new investors and assured ownership with no outstanding debt, using the golf course, its buildings and facilities as collateral.

The course is also known for a sly creature that moves around from time to time – a red fox and its family. Scott Hare, general manager and director of golf for the course, met the four-footed hazard when he was playing an after-hours round three years ago when he was new to the course. The fox welcomed him to the neighborhood by stealing his golf ball – twice.

Hitting the Green: Sapelo Hammock Golf Course. Photo credit: contributed.

No longer just a sleepy coastal area, McIntosh County is alive and kicking with growth in both business and tourism, the revitalization of some older properties and grant-funded improvements throughout historic Darien.