Murray County: Major Win
Inland port, community cooperation and award-winning education
Author: Randy Southerland
Lake Oconee: Forward Momentum
Georgia’s Lake Oconee region is a land of contrasts. From million-dollar lakefront homes to high-tech industrial plants to picturesque Main Street towns, this is a region that has known hard times and economic resurgence. The three counties of Greene, Morgan…
High-Tech Spark
Georgia has long been known for cotton and peaches, but a better symbol might soon be stem cells. From Athens to Atlanta, the state is rapidly becoming a center for the high-tech innovation known as bioscience. This broad term includes…
Gainesville | Hall County: Full Speed Ahead
The center of the economic, if not geographic universe in Northeast Georgia can be found in Gainesville and Hall County. This fast-growing region is where you come to do all your serious shopping, banking and receive medical care. Increasingly, it…
Dalton | Whitfield County: Coming Back Stronger
Dalton and Whitfield County earned the title “Carpet Capital of the World” decades ago by nurturing an industry that eventually covered the globe. Its success provided jobs and security for thousands of workers. When the Great Recession dampened the demand…
Fore!
Mike Mosquito with UHY Advisors in Atlanta plays golf three or more times a week. A former SEC golfer at Auburn, he’s built his career using golf as an entrée to the world of business leaders. He understands that the…
Pooler: Coming Into Its Own
Pooler, in western Chatham County, has been on the economic fast track for quite a while now. Sure, there was a slowdown during the Great Recession, but that period provided this city of 21,000 with some moments to step back…
Perimeter Area: Business Bull's-Eye
Central Perimeter on the northern arc of Atlanta’s I-285 ring has long been the epicenter of the region’s office market. It was here, across both Fulton and DeKalb counties, that big corporations migrated to be close to the northern suburbs…
South Metro: Start Your Engines
The motto for South Metro Atlanta in recent years could very well be “Lights! Camera! Action!” With the emphasis on action. It’s true the Southside has attracted more than its share of film crews and film studios, but the action…
Metro Atlanta: On The Move
Throughout the Metro Atlanta region, you can see the signs of economic growth. From retail stores filling out strip centers in Barrow County to a new Braves stadium in Cobb and sprawling corporate campuses in Perimeter, the signs all point…
Macon | Bibb County: It's Better In Bibb
It’s been a long time coming, but Macon is back. From a resurgent business community to a fast-developing and now trendy downtown, this Middle Georgia city is on the upswing. Economic developers like Pat Topping, senior vice president of the…
Moving The World
Most people never give a thought to how all those products – from hairdryers to lawn mowers – get to their local Walmart or Home Depot. Yet to travel from factories that may be thousands of miles and dozens of…
Cherokee County: Building A Following
Cherokee County businesses can find their location is sometimes a hard sell when seeking young college grads to fill out their workforce. It seems too far outside Atlanta’s perimeter – until the 20-somethings get here and begin to see all…
Bryan County: Port Proximity
Bryan County May not be nearly as well-known as its eastern neighbor Chatham County, home to tourist-friendly Savannah, but these days people and businesses are finding this community near the coast a great place to be. Driven by two big…
Elbert County: Solid Focus
For as long as anyone can remember, granite has been the foundation of Elbert County’s economic success. Drive around this rural northeast Georgia region and you’ll soon come upon deep pits cut into the earth. At one such quarry just…
DeKalb County: Kicking It Up A Notch
It seems you can hardly look at the news these days without seeing another DeKalb County government official in trouble. At press time, former county commissioner Elaine Boyer had just pleaded guilty to federal charges of lining her pocketbook with…
Athens | Clarke County: Diversifying An Insulated Economy
In Athens-Clarke County, local officials will sometimes say they have an insulated economy thanks to the presence of the University of Georgia and its nearly 35,000 students. While that’s not exactly true, there is much to be said for having…
Biotech Boom
James Ross was still a Georgia Tech grad student when he began work on what would one day become Axion Biosystems. He and a couple of fellow students were developing an instrument to measure the nerve activities of brain and…
Gwinnett County: The Community Of Tomorrow
The sounds of hammers building new homes and corporate deals being signed are evidence that Gwinnett County is making a strong and sustained comeback. That’s the word from business people, elected officials and civic leaders alike in this bustling county…
Staffing Up
If you’d like to see how the economy is faring – and what the prospects are for employment – the best place to look might be with Atlanta’s surging staffing agencies. These companies are not just providing temporary workers anymore,…
Augusta | Richmond County: Future Meets Past
The nation’s fight against cyberterrorism is coming to Augusta. Everyone here knows that this East Georgia community is home to one of the nation’s top spy outfits – the National Security Agency at Fort Gordon. Now the sprawling military base…
Douglasville | Douglas County
Just west of Metro Atlanta, Douglas County is a region in transition. Long a bedroom community that drew a surging population with cheap housing, the county has lately begun developing its own local job centers. Yet for the businesses that…
Brunswick | Golden Isles: Booming Business
The Golden Isles are living up to their name. Set amidst the shores of Glynn County on Georgia’s Atlantic coast, this region of temperate climates and sandy beaches has long been a destination for travelers. Bisected with one of the…
Forsyth County: The Changing Landscape
Drive north on Georgia 400 past the perimeter and you soon find yourself in what many consider the epicenter of growth and recovery in Metro Atlanta. Forsyth County has long been one of the nation’s fastest-growing areas. Attracted by good…
Cartersville | Bartow County: Transformative Appeal
Some 40 miles north of Atlanta, Bartow County once promoted itself as being not the big city, but a bucolic retreat from the hustle and bustle. These days the county’s proximity has proven to be the catalyst for some transformative…
West Central: Seeing A Resurgence
Ask folks in Georgia’s west central region what the biggest driver of the regional economy is, and you’ll to get two answers – Kia and Fort Benning. The Korean car maker in West Point and the mammoth military installation near…
Paulding County: Driving Growth
A stretch of Bill Carruth Parkway just might be called the road to Paulding County’s prosperity. Along this Northwest Georgia byway, you can find the industries now shaping the future of this heavily residential and suburban bedroom community. Rising up…
Sandersville | Washington County: Changing Landscape
Drive southwest of Sandersville along the appropriately named Kaolin Road, and you see them rising up tall and white in the distance. Smoke billows from thin stacks, and the air is filled with a fine dust. A steady stream of…
Cobb County: Staying Competitive
When it comes to attracting new business and growing the economy, you have to know your competition and ensure that everyone knows why you’re best. In suburban Cobb County, local leaders have been busy getting to know how this portion…
Franklin County: Strong Connections
In Franklin County, two very distinct visions of Geor-gia exist side by side. This is a region where agriculture is still the largest employer and most land is devoted to raising crops and tending animals. It’s also a place increasingly…
Catoosa County: Border Pride
The term “bedroom community” can come across as a slight: Sure, people like to live here, but they must go elsewhere for employment or entertainment. In Catoosa County, just south of Chattanooga, folks have embraced the term and are turning…
The Hits Keep On Coming
Earlier this year when athenahealth Inc. was seeking a headquarters for a major expansion of its sales, implementation and customer service operation, the Watertown, Mass.-based company bypassed many traditional tech centers for Ponce City Market in Atlanta. The $4-billion company,…
Georgia 400: Here Come The Jobs
Running north from Buckhead into the northern reaches of Fulton County, the Georgia 400 corridor bisects a region that has become one of the most prosperous and fastest-growing areas in the nation. There are gleaming office towers and busy shopping…
Gwinnett County: The Future Is Now
In Gwinnett County, they have looked into the future and found that it’s already here. “Gwinnett is the prototype of America 2040,” says new Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Dr. Daniel Kaufman. “We already look like America 2040,…
Buckhead: New Focus On Technology
These days it seems that just about everyone wants to be in Buckhead. From trendy retailers to high-flying tech start-ups, business is once again booming in this urban enclave of north Atlanta. While the visions of economic prosperity are…
Toccoa | Stephens County: Springing Forward
Some communities become stuck in their past, but in Toccoa and Stephens County the past has become a ready springboard to the future. This rural county in northwest Georgia has found that assets like history, natural beauty and picturesque…
Columbus: Completing The Transformation
The river has always been the lifeblood of Columbus and Muscogee County. The waters of the Chattahoochee powered its mills for more than a century and turned this small West Georgia city into a major industrial center. Its location…
Albany/Dougherty County: Ready To Do Business
Southwest Georgia has long been a favorite of hunters and outdoorsmen. The quail shooting is among the best you’ll find anywhere, and once you visit you often want to stay, say locals. It was on the annual Georgia Quail…
Meriwether County: History With A Future
The very qualities that attracted people – including a great president – to Meriwether County have also stymied its development. First, there’s its vast size: more than 500 square miles of mostly rural land in West Central Georgia. Towns…
2013 Economic Yearbook: West Central
The first thing people like to talk about in Georgia’s west central region is the “Kia juggernaut.” In a down economy, the Korean automaker has become a central focus of economic activity with a bustling plant near West Point…
Effingham County: Banking On Location
It’s a well-worn theme in real estate that location is really what matters. It can also be the deciding factor for the success of a county or region as well. That’s one way economic developers explain the ability of…
Hart County: Fighting Back
After losing 10 percent of its employment base in one fell swoop back in 2006, folks in Hart County had a hard preview of what the Great Recession could bring. That was the year Springs Global – the last…
Cobb County: Team Effort
Cobb County’s motto these days could be a variation on “you can’t keep a good man down.” This suburban region just north of Atlanta went through some rough times during the still lingering great recession, but the news is getting…
Southwest Georgia: Signs Of Recovery
In Southwest Georgia, a vast expanse of 25 counties stretching from Interstate 75 to the Alabama line, signs of economic recovery are starting to take hold. Some traditional jobs centers like Albany and Valdosta are seeing an upsurge in…
Downtown Atlanta: The Heart Of The City
Downtown is not only the oldest part of Atlanta, but around the world it has become the brand that defines the city, the region and even the state. “What drives our growth is visibility – whether it’s a real…
Athens/Clarke County: Class Moves
For most people the mention of Athens and Clarke County brings to mind memories of fall afternoons spent at Sanford Stadium cheering the Bulldogs on to another football victory. Although this small city in the smallest county in Georgia…
Dalton/Whitfield County: Rethinking And Retooling
In Dalton and Whitfield County, they are going through the “big reset.” This Northwest Georgia community, bisected by Interstate 75, has long been proclaimed the “Carpet Capital of the World” in honor of the industry that has dominated the…
Augusta/Richmond County: Painting The Town Prosperous
Augusta in Richmond County may be Georgia’s second largest city, but it has long suffered from something of a stepchild syndrome among Georgia’s other cities. Located along Interstate 20 east right before it enters South Carolina, the city hasn’t…
Douglasville/Douglas County: Coming Back
Once a community is hit by recession, it can sometimes be hard to know when the recovery is under way. For Douglas County residents, the evidence can be found in bricks and mortar and a business climate that is…
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