The Economic Development Authority of Columbia County (EDACC) held its final meeting of 2024, Wednesday morning, at its Evans office at 1000 Business Blvd., capping off what proved to be an eventful year for the authority.
In March, Augusta Economic Development Authority alumna Cheney Eldridge joined the staff as the Columbia County authority’s executive director.
The ensuing nine months had Eldridge oversee the EDACC’s uniting with the development authorities of both Augusta and Burke County to form the Greater Augusta Development Authority, the hiring of a new project manager—Stuart Hilsman—over the summer; and its engagement with the county’s response to Hurricane Helene.
Her tenure thus far has also seen the addition of “economic” to the authority’s name, to distinguish it from surrounding development organizations.
“It’s been an incredible year, getting to know all of you and getting to know Columbia County,” said Eldridge during the meeting, lauding the staff and the board of directors. “Seeing how wonderful this community is, and how we came together in a catastrophe, in the good times and the bad.”
Hilsman would go on to note that the EDACC received three new projects since November’s meeting–bringing the total to 12—representing $8.9 billion in potential investments, and more than 2,700 potential new jobs.
Seven of these projects are “direct active,” Hilsman explained, meaning only the EDACC is currently involved in their development, and not the state or other entities. Five of those prospects are considering setting up at White Oak Business Park, Phase 1 of which still has 80 acres available for potential new businesses, while Phase 2 has 159 acres of undeveloped property remaining.
Hilsman went on to suggest potential uses for this land, indicating industrial and manufacturing developments would be apt for the larger parcels, while retail projects would be suitable for the smaller properties.
what we’ve talked about throughout the years sort of, what do we want to balance what the park is going to look like? So in the back you have just a couple of those bigger parcels, so those would probably be served better for more industrial projects, you know, manufacturing, what have you. Whereas on the front side, maybe we want to look at retail. I know Child Care is a big topic of discussion with this group, you know, really balancing what we can do there.
“When we talked to the folks at Club Car and Amazon, a lot of what they say is we need somewhere to eat, so we don’t have to drive 20 or 30 minutes out of the way to go grab something on their lunch break,” said Hilsman. “So that is definitely something to look at as we enter 2025.”
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
