The shutdown of the Rheem Manufacturing plant in Milledgeville was a low point during the Great Recession for the city along Lake Sinclair in central Georgia.
About 1,600 people worked at the factory at its peak, local officials say, but during the downturn the well-known maker of heating and air systems shifted production to factories elsewhere, including Mexico.
On Tuesday, local leaders and Gov. Nathan Deal’s office announced a long-awaited renewal for the dormant plant: A startup company plans to create more than 1,000 jobs in Rheem’s old building over the next five years.
Sparta Industries, which makes foam insulation for air ducts in commercial buildings, plans to start renovations to the building in the next 60 to 90 days and hiring is expected to begin by November, officials said.
Manufacturing of what is described as a “zero-emission” product is expected to start early next year, said Matt Poyner, executive director of the Development Authority for Milledgeville and surrounding Baldwin County.
“This is obviously a big win for us,” said Poyner, calling the project the largest jobs announcement for the area in the four years he’s been with the authority.
Jeremy Meighan, Sparta chief financial officer, said the new insulation will be made in an “environmentally-friendly way.” He cited Milledgeville’s skilled workforce and the enthusiasm of its leaders as reasons for picking the region.
Sparta is currently based in Texas but will move its headquarters to Milledgeville when the factory opens, Meighan said.
Georgia was slower to emerge from the Great Recession than the rest of the country, and rural areas were especially hard-hit.
Baldwin County’s unemployment rate peaked at 16.1 percent in June 2010. That’s about six percentage points higher than the statewide rate at its peak.
But the Milledgeville area, which is about 100 miles southeast of Atlanta, has already narrowed that gap. The jobless rate in Baldwin, which has about 45,000 residents, was 6.8 percent in March, compared to the 5.5 percent state average.
“We’ve been waiting a long time to get someone back to work in this building,” Chat Daniel, chairman of the Milledgeville and Baldwin development authority, said in the release. “We are optimistic about a great future and partnership with Sparta Industries.”
Poyner said Sparta’s minimum starting salary will be $30,000. The county’s median household income is less than $32,000 per year, according to U.S. Census data.
Sparta will receive a tax abatement from local governments of about $1 million over 15 years, Poyner said. The company is eligible for state tax credits for new jobs created, sales and use tax exemptions and free worker training from the state’s lauded Quick Start program, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
If Sparta creates as many jobs as it plans, the state jobs tax credits could be worth $20 million over five years, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Poyner’s agency started talking to Sparta officials last spring. The company was drawn to Milledgeville by the Rheem building after scouting sites in other states, including Alabama.
In October, Poyner's office disclosed in a filing with the state Department of Community Affairs that it had entered into negotiations "with a large, start-up manufacturing company" to take over the empty Rheem building. The would-be jobs deal was known at the time as "Project Sparta."
“They started to look here at the community and our labor force and all the pieces came together,” Poyner said.
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