Savannah Megasite, RE-VISTED

I just attended a meeting today with a Savannah Economic Development Authority (seda.org) representative that gave us good news on activity at the famed "megasite." The 1500 acre state owned, industrial / manufacturing site sits on the northern frontage of I-16 between Dean Forest Road (Hwy 307) to the east & I-95 to the west.

The Governor has finally agreed to consider a smaller user vs. 1 "mega" user.  Multiple auto manufactures have told us it's too far from their suppliers to make it competitive.  What that reduced parcel size is, there is no official answer but, at least there is hope to open the site to smaller players. Once such player, which shall remain unnamed, has expressed serious interest of late.  Per the company, if they go through with the project, there is no other site they are considering & it will be done there.  Though it would be a "small" project, it could still mean a $300-$500,000,000 investment & 300-600 jobs.

A project here would jump start the local industrial market in the immediate area and be a great boost to existing office & retail projects that need to lease some space.  A project my team represents, the 30 acre mixed use development Garden City Town Center, is located just 1/2 mile south of the site on Dean Forest Road.  It would benefit greatly in the form of potential new office users, retail & hotel sites, multi-family, etc.   Map above courtesy of SEDA.

Rex Benton is a Commercial Real Estate Advisor for NAI Savannah and commercial real estate columnist for BiS:Business in Savannah business journal. He can be reached at the downtown office at 912-238-0874 or via email.