Georgia Trend - April 2013

  If there’s a word that best describes economic development in Southeast Georgia, it would have to be “diversity.” The region is perhaps best known for the major ports in Savannah and Brunswick, but the economy incorporates a wide range…

  “We’re sure not booming, but we’re getting there.” Lee County’s Winston Oxford is talking about his coun-ty, but he could be speaking for the entire South-west Georgia region. After several years of struggling with an ailing economy, the region’s…

  With several biofuel projects kicking into gear this year in East Central Georgia, pine is starting to smell like money. “The European continent is under mandate to decrease the amount of fossil fuels – i.e., coal – they use…

  As the bad economy continues to recede in Georgia’s rearview mirror, a new word is cropping up on the lips of economic developers around the state: Regionalism. People are banding together, forming coalitions and organizations that are encouraging neighboring…

  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…

  The new $200-million Caterpillar manufacturing facility near Athens has set in motion economic development opportunities that could spread like the wings of a butterfly throughout Northeast Georgia. The 265-acre property in Bogart straddles Clarke and Oconee counties, and nearby…

  New technology and a housing thaw have accelerated a comeback in the hard-hit northwest Georgia region, which depends mostly on a cluster of big flooring companies, resulting in better-paying positions and more opportunity for advancement for industry employees. Green…

  The Metro Atlanta region is Georgia’s economic and cultural nucleus, a dense urban center within a demographically diverse suburban and exurban patchwork, stitched together by an asphalt web crawling with commuters in a slow hurry to get to work…