Paper products giant Georgia-Pacific plans to build an advanced new lumber plant in Warren County, near Augusta, where the company says it will hire about 40 new workers.
Georgia-Pacific said Wednesday the $135 million softwood lumber plant will rise next to an existing mill. Construction is expected to start in the summer, with an opening in spring 2019.
The new mill is part of a broader investment by the company in plants across the south. Georgia-Pacific said it has invested about $1.9 billion in operations and acquisitions in Georgia since 2006.
The new facility will replace an older mill that has been in operation in Warren County, about 115 miles east of downtown Atlanta, since the 1970s. The old plant will continue to operate until the new mill is completed, spokeswoman Karen Cole said in an email. The new plant will continue to use a kiln that was added to the property in 2016.
The company said it currently employs about 150 people in Warren County and those jobs will remain. The new plant will be able to triple the output of the existing facility.
“We have enough property next to our existing mill in Warren County to build a larger facility equipped with the latest in lumber manufacturing technology,” Fritz Mason, vice president and general manager of Georgia‐Pacific Lumber, said in a news release. “We have a great team at Warrenton and building a new state‐of‐the‐art facility on this site will make it competitive for years to come. The team has earned it.”
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