Plans Outline $100M of Industrial Projects for Jackson, Henry Counties

Grove Street Partners of Cobb County have broken ground on an 845,000-sf warehouse and distribution center on a 60-acre tract within the 550-acre Valentine Industrial Park, about 30 miles northeast of Downtown Atlanta.

The developers also plan an 850,000-sf spec building on a 56-acre site in Henry County and a 300,000-sf office structure in the Buckhead district of Atlanta, according to preliminary development plans filed in each locale. Area planners tell GlobeSt.com both industrial projects, totaling 1.7 million sf, could probably be built for about $60 per sf or a total $101 million.

Area brokers familiar with the growing Jackson County market tell GlobeSt.com Grove Street Partners principals Steve Williams and Kevin Kern are constructing their 845,000-sf complex on Wayne Poultry Road and Valentine Industrial Parkway, near Interstate 85.

"They are banking on filling the space from new national corporations who will be joining existing corporate citizens such as Caterpillar Inc., Mayfield Dairy, Haverty Furniture, Toyota Industries North America and Denso Corp.," a local broker, not associated with the new developments, tells GlobeSt.com. The county's largest employer is Wayne Farms, a poultry industry leader which has hired 1,250 local residents at a 50-acre plant off Interstate 85, near Pendergrass.

In Buckhead, the developers plan their 300,000-sf office building at a recently acquired site on Peachtree Road where the former Atlanta Institute of Art was housed. The estimated hard construction cost of that project is $45 million, based on a minimum $150-per-sf development cost, area construction industry sources tell GlobeSt.com.

The Northeast Georgia Regional Development Center is reviewing the 845,000-sf warehouse-distribution project in Jackson County because of its size and expected impact on the local community.