Auto plant announcement for Bryan County megasite is Friday. Here's what you need to know

ajc.com

Credit: LEE JIN-MAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Credit: LEE JIN-MAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Update: This story has been modified to reflect a May 19 announcement by Hyundai about plans for its electric vehicle fleet.

Savannah is the manufacturing home to industry-leading original equipment makers Gulfstream, JCB and Mitsubishi Power.

Come Friday, automaker Hyundai Motors joins the ranks.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will announce plans by Hyundai Motors, which manufactures the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands, to build an assembly plant at the Bryan County megasite, according to people familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment publicly. The governor's office has called a 3 p.m. Friday press conference at the megasite property.

Details on the deal are scarce, as many local and state officials involved are prohibited from speaking about it due to non-disclosure agreements. According to reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the factory will build electric vehicles and employ as many as 8.500 workers.

Here's what else to know ahead of Friday's announcement.

ajc.com

Credit: Courtesy of the Savannah Economic Development Authority

icon to expand image

Credit: Courtesy of the Savannah Economic Development Authority

Hyundai no stranger to Georgia

The South Korean automaker has been building vehicles in Georgia since 2009, when a Kia factory opened in West Point, located along Interstate 85 near the Georgia-Alabama border. The plant employs 2,700 workers and operates 24 hours a day to produce 340,000 gas-powered automobiles a year.

Hyundai Motors currently owns 10% market share in the U.S. between its Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands.

ajc.com

Credit: LEE JIN-MAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

icon to expand image

Credit: LEE JIN-MAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

The automaker currently produces two all-electric models, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6, but earlier this year announced plans to add 18 new EV models to its vehicle portfolio by the end of the decade.

Hyundai Motors will bethe second automaker to announce plans to build an EV factory in Georgia in the last six months. Rivian signed a deal in December to build a 7,000-employee assembly plant along Interstate 20 east of Atlanta near the town of Rutledge. Rivian is a well-financed startup that has targeted the truck and van sectors in the same way Tesla has sedans and SUVs.

The making of the Bryan megasite

State and local economic development leaders have been courting automakers to the Savannah area for 20 years, first marketing the Pooler megasite - now known as the Chatham County Development Center - to Chrysler to build Sprinter vans in 2002.

Other automakers flirted with the megasite, located off Dean Forest Road near the I-16/1-95 interchange, but consistently cited issues with the property's size: 1,600 acres, not all of it developable. That made the property's owner, the Georgia Ports Authority, amenable to dividing the site, and Mitsubishi claimed a portion of it in 2009. Amazon and Celadon, a paper recycler, are currently building facilities on the remainder of the center.

ajc.com

Credit: Amazon

icon to expand image

Credit: Amazon

The feedback from manufacturers led Savannah Economic Development Authority officials to combine forces with similar agencies in Bulloch, Bryan and Effingham counties to form the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority, or JDA. The group worked to identify other locations for a megasite along I-16.

The JDA identified a 2,000-acre site along I-16 in Bryan County. The property is located just off the U.S. 280 exit, behind the truck weight station and across the highway from the Bryan County Interstate Center, home to several small manufacturing centers such as Daniel Defense. The property is located 23 miles west of downtown Savannah.

Several automakers looking to build new plants showed interest in the site, including Volvo and Mercedes-Benz. But those manufacturers ultimately chose to build elsewhere.

An issue with the Bryan County location was that it was comprised of several parcels, possessed by three different owners, a situation that complicated negotiations with potential tenants.

The State of Georgia solved that problem in 2021, buying out all the owners and assembling a 2,284-acre site at a cost of $61 million. The sale was financed by Amazon's purchase of a portion of the Pooler megasite.

At the time the sale closed, officials said they did not have a  potential tenant in mind for the site. They did, however, predict it wouldn't be vacant long term. Word leaked last November that Rivan had looked at Bryan County before settling on the Rutledge site to build its factory.

The power of the ports

Hyundai currently builds cars at its Kia plant on the western edge of the state yet many of those vehicles - and the hundreds of parts that go into them - touch Georgia's coast as well. Kia is one of the Georgia Ports Authority's best customers, utilizing its terminals in Savannah and Brunswick.

The GPA will certainly be a major shipper of the EVs to be built in Bryan County. The site is less than 30 miles from the Garden City terminal, and the Jimmy Deloach Parkway connector is scheduled to be completed well before the Kia plant will open. The parkway will connect the GPA gates to I-16 in west Chatham County, taking port truck traffic off of Dean Forest Road and I-95.

According to the GPA 2021 annual report, wheeled cargo such as cars, trucks, buses and construction equipment grew significantly in 2021 with 668,166 units crossing all GPA docks..

The Port of Brunswick handled the majority of the growth, moving 650,000 units of vehicles and heavy machinery in 2021. Brunswick is the second busiest port for vehicles in the U.S. with an annual capacity of 900,000.

What it took to attract Hyundai

Officials won't disclose details of the Hyundai deal until after Friday's announcement, but the incentives package is expected to be substantial.

Consider that state and local governments are providing Rivian $1.5 billion in tax breaks and other incentives to open the plant in Rutledge. Those incentives do come with a "claw back" provision should Rivian not meet investment and employment commitments.

Savannah has a history of using incentives to lure large-scale employers. Mitsubishi's initial lease on the Pooler megasite was for $1 a year and the company was granted a tax abatement through the end of 2022. The building and land is to be conveyed to Mitsubishi at year's end at which point the company becomes a taxpaying corporate citizen.

Amazon's 2021 deal was structured differently. The company bought the site outright but will receive tax abatements and infrastructure improvements, including new roads. Amazon will pay Chatham County school taxes.

Workforce and growth

Bryan is the state's fastest growing county, according to 2020 census data, and the Hyundai Motors plant should further accelerate the growth. The metro Savannah unemployment rate is currently 3.2%, just off record lows.

The site is located in Bryan County's northern corner, in close proximity to Statesboro, Rincon and Hinesville as well as Savannah. The plant is expected to lead to population increases throughout the region.

The area boasts several workforce development program. In 2019, the state opened a Quick Start training facility at the Georgia Advanced Manufacturing Training Center, located in western Chatham County. The region's technical colleges - Savannah Tech, Ogeechee Tech and Southeastern Tech- offer training programs as do local four-year universities Georgia Southern and Savannah State.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Auto plant announcement for Bryan County megasite is Friday. Here's what you need to know