Economic Development Features

Bee Malady: Some 165 billion members of Georgia’s most critical workforce are without badly needed healthcare and their numbers are diminishing. This is the estimated number of bees in Georgia’s 100 or so commercial colonies who, every year, work their…

Empowerment In Crisp: At first, it seemed the hotels, fast food restaurants and travel centers springing up along Exit 99 on Interstate 75 in rural Crisp County were just another step in the evolution of highway development. But the 400…

Leaders throughout the state have had their eyes trained carefully on economic indicators for the last several months, aware that trouble is brewing in other parts of the country and that some key industries are ailing. But by and large,…

Metro Atlanta, undoubtedly the state’s biggest economic engine, experienced robust growth and job creation in 2007, despite a weakened economy and concerns about water and transportation. And 2008 promises continued corporate expansion, infrastructure improvement and major residential, commercial and retail…

A couple of decades ago, a history professor at Dalton College and State University told his students that some day northwest Georgia would be one long continuous city along Interstate 75 from Atlanta to Chattanooga. For anyone who has made…

Northeast Georgia’s burgeoning wine industry is a great fit for an area that relies on agriculture and tourism, and winemakers are eager to develop the potential. “We need partners in the wine industry to make it grow and give the…

As the U.S. Army Armor School heads toward Fort Benning and Kia plant activity intensifies, west central Georgia counties are watching ripples of growth spread over the entire region. By January, as the nearly 3,000-worker hiring process began at the…

In real estate, the battle cry is “location, location, location.” In central Georgia, officials looking to recruit industry are borrowing that mantra as they promote a region with access to interstate highways, ports and airports, as well as a relaxed…

With a little collaboration and a willingness to think outside the box, many counties in east central Georgia registered an economic boost in 2007. Five neighboring counties – Lincoln, Warren, Wilkes, McDuffie and Columbia – have come together to promote…