Georgia reaped a major win Friday with the official announcement of a Caterpillar construction equipment plant, which will ultimately employ about 1,400 people.
Gov. Nathan Deal and officials from Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties announced the $200 million project at the State Capitol.
Caterpillar selected a portion of the 900-acre Orkin tract, a long-marketed industrial site that straddles the Athens-Clarke and Oconee lines. Caterpillar expects to break ground in March. The factory will initially employ around 800, with 1,400 jobs expected by 2020.
In addition, company and state officials say as many as 2,800 additional jobs could flow to Georgia and surrounding states from Caterpillar suppliers that are expected to move their operations nearby.
The win didn’t come cheaply. Caterpillar is eligible for job tax credits and a project development grant totaling $45 million, according to Alison Tyrer, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Economic Development. That does not include jobs training provided by the state under Georgia’s Quick Start program.
Athens-Clarke and Oconee incentives include tax abatements and infrastructure construction, including expanded transportation access.
The local governments in Athens and Oconee will acquire the 265 acres in a deal approved Friday, with ownership transferring to the company over 20 years. Local incentives are valued at more than $30 million over 20 years.
Georgia has been among a number of states wooing Caterpillar. In November, the Peoria, Ill.-based heavy equipment maker announced plans to open a new U.S. manufacturing facility for mini-hydraulic excavators and small track-type tractors.
“We are excited about our two counties coming together to support this project because of the opportunity it brings to enhance our local industrial base,” Athens Mayor Nancy Denson said in a news release. “This project brings back some of the traditional manufacturing jobs we have lost over the past decades and gives a significant number of people in our community and the region new job opportunities.”
Athens, thanks to the University of Georgia, surrounding colleges and its hospitals, has weathered the fallout of the Great Recession relatively well. Its unemployment rate is better than the state’s as a whole.
The Orkin tract lies between two major highways, U.S. 78 and Ga. 316, about 60 miles east of downtown Atlanta. It has been pitched to major manufacturers for decades.
It was once envisioned as a site for IBM, and later it was pitched to auto companies and pharmaceutical firms. But Athens could never consummate the deal.
“We’ve been through the dance so many times,” said Doc Eldridge, a former Athens mayor and the president and chief executive of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve always been the bridesmaid, but never the bride.”
Athens, home to the University of Georgia and a liberal enclave that is highly protective in terms of new development, had earned a reputation as not being friendly to big business.
Landing Caterpillar, Eldridge said, suggests Athens is “open for business.”
The Orkin tract for 30 years has been touted as Athens’ industrial savior. Though coveted, Caterpillar may not have the panache of green energy or biotechnology. But local business leaders said the heavy equipment maker will be welcomed and complement what the region offers.
“I don’t think anybody is going to pooh-pooh on this idea of Caterpillar coming to our community,” said Amrey Harden, president and CEO of Oconee State Bank in Watkinsville, the Oconee County seat.
Though Athens' overall economy has held on, construction has suffered since the slump started. Home-building and home-buying fell off, and tradesmen who couldn’t find work sought work in other fields, Harden said.
The Caterpillar announcement will provide a lift to businesses that took a “bunker mentality” in the depths of the recession, Harden said.
“They’ve been looking for something to be that catalyst, to say ‘Okay, now’s the time to start investing in the future,'” Harden said
Georgia beat out several competing states, including North Carolina, which was in the running for the plant just a few days ago, said state Rep. Dewey Hill, who represents an area near Wilmington that he said had been considered.
Caterpillar has a division headquarters in Cary, N.C., near Raleigh, and The Associated Press reported recently that Caterpillar officials wanted to locate the factory nearby.
But Georgia appears to have risen to the forefront most likely because of access to the Port of Savannah, Hill said Thursday evening.
“They’re looking for bigger and longer-term things,” he said of Caterpillar. “Shipping overseas to other ports is going to be very important.”
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