Brunswick: Golden Isles | Bountiful Brunswick

Wealth of Possibilities: Ryan Moore, president and CEO of the Golden Isles Development Authority. Photo credit: Frank Fortune

Brunswick and the Golden Isles have embraced logistics, first by sea and now in the skies. The Port of Brunswick’s specialized terminal at Colonels Island was the nation’s busiest port for auto imports/exports, first in 2024 and again in 2025. Now, the search is on to maximize resources in and around the Brunswick-Golden Isles Airport, where Glynn County already boasts considerable aeronautics resources.

Golden Isles Development Authority President and CEO Ryan Moore says at the authority’s first meeting with consultants, he expected they would have only a narrow range of options to boost the area’s aerospace assets. Instead, he discovered a wealth of possibilities. “They told us, ‘Hey, you guys have an 8,000-foot runway and a lot of property there. There’s more than just one potential user here, so why don’t we really put together a package and send it out to a really broad audience?’” Moore says. “So that’s our current track.”

The development authority is responsible for finding a user for 600 open acres, located in two roughly equal-sized tracts, adjacent to the airport, Moore says. The airport also offers another 400 to 500 acres that could be used as additional hangar space, he adds.

The airport already hosts two major aerospace clients in its portfolio:

• With about 300 employees in Glynn County, Gulfstream Aerospace ranks as the county’s third-largest industrial/manufacturing employer. Those employees are spread between the special missions operation, dedicated to custom outfitting of planes for the U.S. and foreign governments, and the completion of aircraft for the company’s regular markets.
• Stambaugh Aviation’s 117 employees rank the company as Glynn County’s ninth-largest industrial/manufacturing employer. The company specializes in the repair and refitting of large commercial aircraft, among them Boeing, Airbus and McDonnell Douglas. For example, back in March, aircraft from Australian airline Qantas and international parcel deliverer DHL could be seen parked there, and Moore says billionaires’ private planes are also serviced there.

Sweet Spot: Brunswick-Golden Isles Airport. Photo credit: Contributed

Ambitions go beyond courting additional aviation industries.

“We are working to attract an additional carrier and additional service to Brunswick,” says Moore. “We can make a good argument that we need more service.”

Celebrating Progress: Brunswick Mayor Cosby Johnson, in front of a former SunTrust bank building that is being converted into housing and a gym. Photo credit: Frank Fortune

The Brunswick-Golden Isles Airport occupies an unusual sweet spot among airports. It’s large enough to offer scheduled passenger service, yet small enough that parking remains free. Delta is currently the only carrier, with three daily flights to Atlanta. Those flights are often full, Moore says, and the development authority and its stakeholders would like to see either an additional carrier or a fourth scheduled flight, a proposal that almost took off a few years ago but was grounded by the pandemic.

Moore says the authority has turned to the international aviation planning and engineering firm of Mead & Hunt for guidance in how to proceed with both its industrial ambitions and expanded passenger capacity.

Honoring His Predecessor: Ralph Staffins, president and CEO of the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce. Photo credit: Eliot VanOtteren

Meanwhile, later this month the terminal at the Brunswick-Golden Isles Airport will be named the M.H. “Woody” Woodside Terminal to honor a veteran economic developer who retired in 2019 after 34 years as president of the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce. Woodside died in 2024 at the age of 76.

“Our organization has worked very hard to find something that’s fitting to honor Woody Woodside. He was instrumental in that airport having commercial flights and industrial users like Gulfstream locating there,” says Ralph Staffins, who followed Woodside as president and CEO of the chamber. “His fingerprints are all over that airport.”

Port of Brunswick: Driving Success

Name an asset that a Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro-Ro) port could want, and the Port of Brunswick’s Colonels Island terminal not only has it but has either recently improved it or is in the process of doing so. Berth space for the massive Ro-Ro vessels that carry cars, trucks and construction equipment? Check, with three in service and a fourth under construction. Paved parking for thousands of inbound or outbound vehicles? Check, and work is underway, lot by lot, to raise pavements to reduce future flooding risks. Rail connections? Check, with a southside rail expansion boosting rail capacity to 370,000 vehicles per year. Vehicle processing centers, which carry out vital completion and customization work for both imported and exported vehicles? Check, times four.

Adding Capacity: Construction continues on a fourth Roll-on/Roll-off berth at the Port of Brunswick’s Colonels Island. Photo credit: Georgia Ports Authority

That list could go on – covered storage facilities, easy access to Interstate 95, fresh maintenance dredging begun earlier this year and set to wrap up soon – but the message is clear: The Port of Brunswick is on an aggressive expansion campaign. In FY2025, the Georgia Ports Authority completed a whopping $284 million in improvements there, drawing the money from its own coffers.

That’s the good news. But there are some headwinds. In calendar year 2025, Brunswick handled 7.5% fewer units of autos and heavy equipment than it did in 2024. Chalk that up to what ports officials call “global trade uncertainty,” a euphemism for the whiplash-paced, on-again-off-again U.S. tariff situation. Even given the decline in numbers, 832,194 autos and pieces of heavy equipment moved through the Colonels Island terminal in 2025.

Few details about the decline are available, although the port has acknowledged a decrease in luxury vehicle exports to Asia, attributed to increased competition from manufacturers in China. Ports officials seem to have taken the ups and downs in stride, with Georgia Ports Authority President and CEO Griff Lynch saying that market cycles are a normal part of business.

Meanwhile, construction continues on the terminal’s fourth Ro-Ro berth, with an anticipated project cost of $100 million. The goal? To stay dominant in the unsentimental Ro-Ro world that values speed, reach and efficiency. In an industry with long-lead construction times, shipbuilders are already working on even larger versions of today’s Ro-Ro giants. The largest ships at work now can carry 9,000 car equivalent units (CEUs), with the commissioning of 10,000 CEU-capacity vessels this year, soon to be followed by 12,000-CEU vessels.

Handling Heavy Loads: Flavio Batista, chief commercial officer for the Georgia Ports Authority. Photo credit: Frank Fortune

The new terminal is being built to handle the additional weights of the import/export construction equipment – called “high and heavy” – that has become an increasingly important part of the Brunswick ports’ business, says Flavio Batista, chief commercial officer for the GPA.

“This terminal serves 50 ships in a calendar month,” Batista says, looking out over the swath of pavement leading up to the riverfront and a ship berthed there, with a second ship departing in the river behind it.

So, is there room on the port for yet another berth? Potentially conceivable, he acknowledges, but adds: “This berth is more than enough, given the size of the facility.”

The size of the port is one thing Ports Authority officials point to frequently: 264 acres are still available for expansion. Its competitors don’t have the real estate to expand without expensive land purchases. And other space-saving measures – like building parking decks instead of parking lots – slow down the onloading and offloading process, Batista says.

This time last year, Lynch and other senior GPA execs were worried about whether Brunswick’s shipping channel could be deepened to the authorized level of 38 feet. Amid dredging delays, inflation sapped the allocated federal money. Those concerns are now alleviated, with channel dredging wrapping up in March and additional work expected in the summer.

Tourism: Setting a Record Pace

While executives at the GPA breathe a sigh of relief over the recent progress, Scott McQuade, president of the Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau, also has cause to exhale.

“We are up! We were up 1.5% in revenue, but considering the nation, in lodging occupancy, where the occupancy was down, the fact that we had an increase at all is good,” says McQuade of last year.

Feeling Optimistic: Scott McQuade, president of the Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau. Photo credit: Contributed

But the good news doesn’t stop there. “The year 2023 was our all-time record year, and we are on a pace right now that tracks ahead of our record year at the moment,” he said in mid-March. “I’m optimistic, if things continue the way they are going, we’ll surpass our record year.”

“We’ve shown we can compete on the national stage, and I think we will continue to do that,” he says. “The challenge is to bring visitors here but not degrade the experience. We are well aware of what overtourism is.”

New developments in the area’s tourism portfolio include a $45 million renovation starting this summer at the circa-1935 King and Prince Resort and Club, the landmark beachfront hotel on St. Simons Island, he says.

Plans call for the refurbishment of all the resort’s rooms, along with all of the public spaces, meeting rooms and dining areas. Golf course designer Beau Welling Design is overseeing the renovation of the golf course and its clubhouse. Once a public-access course, it is now open only to resort guests and paying members. The property is owned by South Street Partners, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina and Charleston, South Carolina and managed by Northview Hotel Group, which is also handling construction management.

Major Refurbishment: The King and Prince Resort and Club is undergoing a $45 million renovation to its rooms, public spaces, golf course and clubhouse. Photo credit: Contributed

Jeff Elseser, general manager at Northview Hotel Group, says the renovations will adhere to standards that protect the King and Prince’s status among the Historic Hotels of America. That group of some 300 hotels is an official program of the National Trust for Historic Places. Memberships also include nine other Georgia hotels and resorts, including the nearby Jekyll Island Club and the Greyfield Inn on Cumberland Island.

With those changes, the golf courses on Jekyll Island become the only public courses remaining in Glynn County. The Jekyll Island Authority plans to find a partner for a golf-oriented hotel of at least 70 rooms and a lounge-style restaurant alongside the existing golf club.

Beaches, Housing, Entrepreneurs

Golf isn’t the only amenity drawing visitors.

“Coast Guard Beach is our biggest beach, and I would say it’s the hub of our activity when it comes to tourism,” says William Fallon, county manager for Glynn County. “We’re actually in the middle of a project there that totals just under $8 million. Half of that, we got from the state – a $3 million grant from the [Department of Natural Resources], from the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Grant, and then we also get another million from the state toward a lifeguard tower that we’re putting in at the building there.”

Facilitating Home Ownership: Brunswick City Manager Regina McDuffie. Photo credit: Frank Fortune

The other half of the funding is being allocated from Glynn County’s hotel/motel tax revenues, he says.

The improvements include increased parking, which is free to the public, a building that includes restrooms, concessions, space for lifeguard operations and public safety, and the lifeguard tower, says Glynn County Commission Chairman Thomas “Wayne” Neal.

The beach attracts locals as well as tourists and highlights another problem common to popular tourist venues – high housing costs.

“We’re working hard not to lose our workforce-age population,” Neal says.

That means housing that a teacher, a police officer or a longshoreman can afford, not housing consumed by short-term vacation rentals or devoted to space for well-heeled retirees. Officials say they are excited about plans to bring another 5,000 single-family residential homes to Glynn County, the lion’s share of them via D.R. Horton’s homebuilding firm. Moore, over at the development authority, points out that adding residential rooftops makes it easier to recruit more and better retail – which residents are asking for.

Brunswick and Glynn County are showing progress in housing growth. Brunswick Mayor Cosby Johnson celebrates a high-density market-rate apartment complex that was recently completed. In the revitalized historic district, work is underway to convert the old SunTrust bank building into housing units and a gym. And the mayor is excited that voters in Brunswick passed a progressive homestead exemption that offers all people who live in their own homes at least a small break on their city property taxes. Long-term homeowners – those with 30 years in place – may receive as much as half off those taxes.

“It was nice to have people come downtown. It was nice to do First Fridays. I’m for all of that. But then we were having young professionals, students, young families say that they love Brunswick but truly didn’t have a place to live in Brunswick because they didn’t have half a million to buy a rehab and do it up. Housing prices had just skyrocketed, so we are really looking for market rate, high density to ensure people have an opportunity to call Brunswick home,” Johnson says.

City Manager Regina McDuffie says housing studies show Brunswick has an aging housing inventory and that a disdisproportionate number of residences are rentals. Armed with this information, she says Brunswick set out to develop housing within the financial reach of its public safety workers, nurses and teachers. A $500,000 grant from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs is helping rehabilitate existing homes, and the city has also just launched a homebuyers’ program to help people prepare for home ownership.

“One of our first success stories is a city employee bought her home through this program,” says McDuffie.

Brunswick and Glynn County also have a soft spot for entrepreneurs, and the latest support system for them has grown and thrived over the past year. The Lucas Center for Entrepreneurship has moved from its original home under the auspices of the College of Coastal Georgia and is now an independent nonprofit that is branching out into neighboring Camden and McIntosh counties.

“Of the 340 entrepreneurs we served in 2025 – most of them in a one-day program that takes them from idea to business plan – 52% of the entrepreneurs actually started their business,” says Ande Noktes, CEO and executive director of the center. Graduates include everyone from a seamstress to bottlers of a tea-based energy drink.

Sweet Success: 11-year-old Adeline Thompson is the face of Adeline’s Candy Company. Photo credit: Contributed

The Golden Isles Development Authority is one of the center’s partners and also has its own entrepreneur initiatives. Last year, the group awarded a promising candy company a $10,000 equipment grant, based on the strength of a child’s presentation.

Now 11 and wrapping up sixth grade at Glynn Middle School, Adeline Thompson is the driving force, the public face and a lot of the candy-making labor at Adeline’s Candy Company, which sells online and at a handful of local shops.

“Originally, my candy was my great-great-grandmother’s recipe,” she says. The fledgling business’s bestseller is its sea salt caramels, which the young candymaker says have “an awesome flavor.”

How’s business? Well, the family is now looking for a storefront on St. Simons Island and could be open as soon as mid-summer.

So, from a giant seagoing parking lot full of cars and backhoes to a tween leading her parents into the sweet world of candy, Brunswick and the Golden Isles are turning possibilities into progress.