Thursday March 28th, 2024 7:52PM

Hall County chosen for new Inland Port by Georgia Ports Authority

State officials, railroad representatives and leaders of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce made a big economic announcement Monday in Gainesville, as local and state officials say an inland port is coming to North Hall County.
 
It'll serve as a direct line to the Port of Savannah, according to Tim Evans with the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce. Evans says this project was been in the works for a while now, with the early discussions starting about three years ago.
 
Evans said, "It evolved into finding the best location but it really required about two years of assembling the site together from over 110 different parcels. And you heard, that 104 of those were a failed residential trailer park development that was laid out and developed in the 1960's, but the roads were never built. So, we had to put that together and that took a good two years."
 
Gov. Nathan Deal spoke at Monday's event at Lee Gilmer Airport, saying that he expects more industry to make its way to Northeast Georgia, "...because to be close to this Inland Terminal will be a benefit to them from the standpoint of their business. It's always good to be close to the nest and this will be the nest."
 
State Rep. Emory Dunahoo was also on hand for the event, and he was asked about the Gainesville Metro - and specifically about its unemployment rate, which remains the lowest of any metro in the state.
 
In other words -- will there be enough folks looking for jobs to fill out these incoming positions?
 
"Lanier Technical College has come in at the perfect time and we'll be the example for the rest of the country, not just the state of Georgia," Dunahoo said. "We can train different people in different professions. This is something they'll come in under union. They'll bring their leaders in to start up. They will hire locally out of our colleges and hopefully that will grow the economy. We're down to 2.7% (unemployment) and I still see people standing on the side of the road with signs that says they need a job."
 
The inland terminal is scheduled to be finished by 2021.
 

  • Associated Categories: Homepage, Local/State News
  • Associated Tags: gainesville, hall county, georgia ports authority, economic development, economy, inland port terminal
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