COWETA COUNTY, GA-Patillo Construction Co., a Stone Mountain-based industrial real estate developer for 55 years, plans to create the second largest business park in metro Atlanta over the next 10 to 20 years, Coweta County staffers confirm for GlobeSt.com.

Patillo expects to break ground by year end on the first phase of Coweta Industrial Park, a planned 25-building, 755-acre, seven-million-sf campus on the west side of Interstate 85, off Exit 51, about 20 miles southwest of Downtown Atlanta. The $250-million venture is being built at a hard construction cost of about $38 per sf, area construction sources tell GlobeSt.com.

The park will be second in size only to the 31-year-old, 10-million-sf Stone Mountain Industrial Park, near the headquarters of Patillo. County officials estimate the $250-million investment by Patillo will be matched by a similar total from tenants buying land in the park and potentially could provide thousands of new jobs to the area.

The park will be Coweta County's largest privately owned industrial complex and comes at a time when the two county-owned and operated parks are nearing at 100% occupancy, county staffers tell GlobeSt.com. The county properties are the 900-acre Shenandoah Industrial Park and the 400-acre Creekside Business and Industrial Center.

County officials already have filed plans to expand the Creekside property to three million sf over the next five years. An undisclosed tenant has made a tentative commitment to the county to develop a one-million-sf distribution center, county staffers confirm to GlobeSt.com.

Patillo has planned Coweta Industrial Park since the mid-1980s but couldn't get the property rezoned until last year, industrial brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com. The company closed a deal this year with Newnan Utilities in nearby Newnan to provide sewer service for the park.