Southeast

In The Zone

Booming Ports, A Thriving Downtown And High Tech Business

Fast facts about Savannah/Chatham County: population, unemployment rate, per capita income, top employers.

Back in 1998, a mysterious package containing an anonymous letter arrived at the offices of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce.

When Savannah aircraft maker Gulfstream announced a major expansion last March, it seemed to underscore the success of leaders in this oak-shaded coastal colonial city in widening an economic base that has long relied on the charm of its historic squares and the muscle of its shipping commerce.

Riding south from Jesup along U.S. Highway 301 with Harry Yeomans behind the wheel of his Mercedes, one is struck by a landscape of long stretches of huge pine forests, interrupted only occasionally by the crumbling motels that lured Florida-bound tourists to Southeast Georgia during the 1940s and '50s.

Andy Cayton likes to fly high on the weekends. Cayton, a Pembroke area resident, is one of the world's foremost balloonists. The retired Army helicopter pilot holds three world records in small hot air balloon categories for altitude (18,000 feet), distance and time (1,666 miles in 16.5 hours) and duration (24 hours without stopping).

Three years ago when it appeared automaker Daimler-Chrysler was coming to the neighborhood with a new plant and bringing thousands of jobs, real estate developers began poking around in northwest Bryan County looking for building sites.