2007-10-04 BUSINESS POST
Cherokee's growth doubles Quality of life draws residents, business to booming County
by Bob Pepalis	write the author
(BOB PEPALIS/Post) Hedgewood Properties helped conceive and develop Woodstock’s new downtown, with the addition of single and multi-family residences mixed in with retail and office use. (click for larger version) October 09, 2007 Since 1990, Cherokee County has grown from 90,000 people to almost 200,000, said Misti Martin, executive director of the Development Authority of Cherokee County. "I think that it speaks to the quality of life of this area because so many people want to move here," she said. A good public school system, health care and lower taxes than living in Atlanta attracted these people, who can have a nice house, yard, send their children to good schools and find parks and recreation. "I think especially for young families this is a great place to live," Martin said. Research by the Development Authority staff for a corporate campus project revealed a large number of people in their late 30s and early 40s who had gotten married and had children have moved to the area. Cherokee is a great community for small business, she said. A lot of people working in Cobb County or Atlanta have grown tired of the commute. The county started getting calls from people wanting to start their own business more than 10 years ago. The Development Authority widened its business to serve the small business community also. "Where Metro meets the Mountains" The county slogan describes the community well, Martin said. Cherokee has become a transition point between the south, a very urban Atlanta with dense population in it and its suburbs, such as Cobb County communities. The southern portion of Cherokee County resembles its nearby Cobb neighbors. "As you get into the middle part of the county, there's more hills. You tend to have less density," Martin said. A lot of estate homes can be found in the northern part of the county. "I think Cherokee is a beautiful county with the Etowah River, Lake Allatoona – those things speak for themselves," she said. People the Development Authority bring up from Atlanta tell them it's such a beautiful drive with a lot of green remaining. "So I think that's another thing that's an attraction in choosing to live in Cherokee," Martin said. Cherokee County doesn't concentrate on finding that one big company to make its economy. The Development Authority recognizes growth mostly comes from existing businesses, so they focus on those businesses already in Cherokee County first. "Secondly, to continue to diversify our opportunities here by recruiting new businesses in," Martin said. What is the status of Cherokee County's economic and business progress? We feel that we've been doing a good job of assisting small business, new businesses to the area. We're recruiting not large businesses, but larger businesses and also helping our existing businesses to expand. An existing industry survey with the Department of Economic Development [gives us] business insight. Our staff has interviewed to date 19 that have 25 or more employees. It's a pretty in-depth interview. All of them are in a growth mode. All of them are saying 'I'm almost all built out, I need additional space.' Another reason for doing [the survey] is to know industries are about maxed out, to make sure we keep then in our community. Eighty percent of new capital investment and growth comes from existing businesses. We've also tried to sell the reverse commute. The majority of folks travel out, going to Fulton or Cobb, 65 percent travel out. The good thing is it's staying at that number. While there has been population growth, we certainly had business growth. Where is this growth coming from? We do get a lot of prospects out of Cobb and Fulton County, and even some out of our bordering counties. For whatever reason, they are interested in Cherokee. The ones in Cobb, especially, they want to keep their current workforce. They feel they can do that in Cherokee. A lot of folks don't realize I-75 hits Cherokee in the southern area of the county. A lot of new growth along there focuses on Hwy. 92 and Bells Ferry. Majestic Realty is doing a new industrial park. They assembled 8 different properties in a 90-acre park by Hwy. 92 and I-75. So that corridor all of a sudden has been very hot, I guess you would say, for a lot of Atlanta brokers that have done deals. It's six miles above Chastain. So you see a lot of people who would not ordinarily look at Cherokee looking at that particular site. Now there are a lot of developers that are looking in that area. One other thing I'd say that has led to our progress: the forward thinking of our leadership when it comes to infrastructure, especially Cherokee Water and Sewer. They seem to have been ahead of the curve in many instances as far as water supply, expansion of sewer infrastructure. I think that has led us to develop some areas that would have taken years. Back in the early '90s, they did the 575 Airport Industrial Park. They worked hard to get water and sewer. That had led that to be a little workforce center. With the expansion of the airport now, it's getting a lot of focus. I think that's another reason for that progress. Where is Cherokee County going? One of the things we're trying to focus on is bringing more white collar employers in. The focus of the Development Authority, Board of Commissioners, city leaders from all municipalities – when we work with project managers at the state level, economic development, utility companies, they understand that we are in agreement for that type of growth. So I think that we will continue to support small business development, and our existing industries. But I think we are going to try to diversify what we have, raise our profile, so to speak, to attract the higher end job. It's not that we don't have them now, but certainly need more. What are the major industries the county depends upon today? I think one of our assets is that we don't have one sector that we rely on. Think about Lockheed in Cobb, others in Cobb, think about carpet mills in Dalton. There's certain companies that you always think about with certain companies. I'm not sure there's one [in Cherokee] that we think of. We have a lot of companies that are suppliers to big comapnies. It's not the household name, it's a key ingredient, or a key part. Universal Alloy Corp., one of our top 10. They are aerospace, they supply to Boeing, all of the big names. But they are not the big name that everybody knows. They have been a huge part of the community in the last 10 years. They spent almost $27 million on an expansion 3 years ago. And we still have some of our long-time industries. Pilgrim's Pride still has a large plant in this community. Meyn America, which moved their office over from Flowery Branch, in part of the former Evenflo building, has taken over the majority of the space. They are a manufacturing company as well. They do have a lot of white collar employment. We do have wide diversity, medium to large, about 200 employees. What will it take to bring these industries and businesses to Cherokee County? Another area that the Development Authority spent a geat deal of time on is getting developers interested in Cherokee County. Ten to fifteen years ago, it seemed like they wanted to build their own facilities, found their own land and their own contractor. But now it seems like so many companies, they grow quickly, all of a sudden they are out of space and they don't have the time to concentrate on building a new facility. It's very similar to build your own home, or buy a home that fits your tastes or needs. What we've seen as the trend over the past five years, the need for spec buildings, or available buildings. When I moved back to Cherokee, we had a lot of space. We had closings, Evenflo had closed, Herman Miller moved back to Michigan in a downsizing. We had two buildings over 300,000 square feet, one 75,000, one 85,000 square feet. The 75,000, 85,000 got tons of prospects – and so did the ones over 300,000 square feet. There aren't a lot of buildings over 300,000 square feet anywhere. All of those have been occupied for quite some time. What is the county doing? What about the cities? With five municipalities, and then you've got Cherokee County government as well, there's a lot. Woodstock is doing so much, especially downtown. With Hwy. 92 widened all the way to I-575, there's additional growth and regrowth. Holly Springs brings a lot of focus downtown with revitalization, to bring more development, more commercial growth to city limits. Canton, all sorts of different things. The mayor has definitely understood that growth was coming – he wanted the city to play a major role in how growth is coming, trying to shape the growth. The Bluffs are supposed to draw at least 15,000 jobs to that area. Appalachian Tech has 25 acres there. It just secured about $7 million from the legislature for its first building for the campus, a 30,000 to 35,000 square feet building. Appalachian Tech has options to purchase another 30 to 25 acres. Waleska has seen growth with Reinhardt College. A new pharmacy building opening in Waleska. Right now Waleska is not on sewer – it has not seen the same pace of growth. Ball Ground, on the north end of the county, they just finished some planning charrettes. They're really doing a lot to shape the future of their growth. There's benn a lot of planning and thought put in to exit 27, the Ball Ground exit, to tie in the interchange with the downtown area. I think they are doing a lot of forward thinking. This is their chance to do it right. The county is building new adminstrative office buildings for all commissioners, permitting offices, in The Bluffs. A conference center is part of the SPLOST (Special Local Option Service Tax). We're also working to try to attract a hotel. They are constantly trying to increase our recreational opportunities in the community. They are working on an aquatic center. The county tries to work with all the cities with growth boundary agreements so when they are planning, they know where growth is coming. They also just finished up their transportation plan, and also the comprehensive land use plan. They are just going through a lot of needs. With Reinhardt College in Waleska, Troy University's campus in Canton, Appalachian Technical College's Woodstock campus and other nearby higher education institutions, What part does education play in Cherokee County? I think they play a very integral part of our economic growth in the community. Reinhardt used to be two years, now it's four. They are starting a graduate program, starting at their North Fulton Center, but hope to have it here very soon as well. Oddly enough, my graduate degree came from Troy in Covington. It's good to see they are branching out all over. Appalachian Tech plays a different role for students whether you are out of high schol, retraining after entering the workforce, whether stay-at-home moms. And also providing the continued eduction from existing buisness, workforce training for our employees. So I think all of our higher education and obviously our public education, too, plays a big part in making the county successful. How does quality of life impact economic progress in Cherokee County? I think the quality of life is definitely a big piece of the puzzle in your economic growth. I'm not sure it's the driving force, but I think it's a huge part of it. Some people completely disgaree. You have to be prepared, have places for people to go. If you have no business sites and parks, where are they going to go. That's a huge part, part of selling the community to the business. But I think it's one of the pieces of the puzzle that makes Cherokee attractive. I think the quality of life drives the residential growth. And the residential growth will help community growth as well. What is the state of health care in Cherokee County? The state of health care is good. Improvements at Northside Hospital-Cherokee help as well. After I was born, they quit delivering babies at R.T. Jones, they put it back. My second child was born there. You've heard about a new hospital at exit 15 – Northside has 15 acres there. The parkway would connect Hwy. 20 and 140. I think that needs to be completed before Northside does anything. Medcial buildings I think would probably happen first before the hospital actually mvoed over there. I think they've done lot of planning make sure that this area is well covered in the health care area. And it's so nice that there are so many specialists in this area. Where does the airport and its expansion fit in the county's economic development? We've got two different companies that are aerospace related. Airport expansion I think is a huge part of our existing growth. There's interest from existing businesses and those with planes down at McCollum Field (in Cobb), even to relocate businesses up there, relocate planes there. New companies find that to be an asset. Technology Park-Atlant feels it's an asset to The Bluffs. If it is a corporate headquarters, they are more than likely going to fly in and out. It's been a driving force in the last year to two years for that airport drive area, at exist 24 [of I-575]. The Development Authority, Airport Authority, Board of Commissioners have been plannign and zoning for an overlay for that area. There's a lot of land that is undeveloped in that area. If the Airport Authority plan is to be a corporate style airport, then we want a corporate feel. It's something we started working on in the last 30 days, but we feel like we've got a chance for redevelopment and new development. How does having Lake Allatoona impact the county's progress? What about other recreational opportunties? I think that it's always had an impact on the community. We've seen an even larger impact now with all the attention on Macauley development proposal, A Village in the Forest. (The property is known as the Willoughby-Sewell tract and is located just north of Lake Allatoona in Bartow and Cherokee Counties. It is bordered by land owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.) I think that drew a lot of attention to the Allatoona area. We certainly see it as a resource and amenity for this area. There's still a lot of land to be developed around the Allatoona area. So I think it will continue to be a great amenity for us. - www.northfulton.com

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