Employers & Industry
Nine Georgia industrial sites, most of them in rural counties, have recently earned state readiness certifications that are meant to make them easier to market to manufacturers and logistics companies. The certifications do not mean any employer has committed to build there.
The sites
The Georgia Department of Economic Development announced on September 17 that five sites had earned GRAD Select status:
- Enterprise Corner, Floyd County
- Louisville Airport Industrial Park, Jefferson County
- Park West Industrial Park, Appling County
- Pierce County Industrial Park, Pierce County
- Wilkes County Industrial Park West, Wilkes County
The Georgia Economic Developers Association’s annual conference in Savannah also recognized four sites certified earlier this summer: Tidewaters Industrial Complex in McIntosh County, Savannah Portside International Park in Effingham County, Tradeport West Business Park in Liberty County and Southerfield Road Industrial Park in Sumter County.
What certification means
GRAD, short for Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development, is the state’s industrial-site certification program. The state says GRAD Select status “indicates that a site has met or exceeded more rigorous certification requirements.” Certification means that due diligence, infrastructure planning and other preparation have been completed in advance, which can shorten part of a company’s site search.
The state says the GRAD program now offers more than 70 certified sites. More than $28 million in Rural Site Development Initiative funding has been disbursed to help rural communities prepare sites, and six of the nine recently certified sites received site-improvement grants or certification scholarships through that initiative.
Certification is not a job announcement
No worker should read a newly certified site as evidence that a company has chosen it. The state’s certified-sites page says more than 10,000 jobs have been created on GRAD sites since the program began in 2008. That is a backward-looking total across the whole program, not a forecast for these nine properties.
The preparation period is still useful locally. Workforce boards, technical colleges and county officials can map nearby occupations, training capacity, transportation and child-care constraints before any particular employer arrives. If a project does commit to one of these sites, its job count, wages and hiring timeline should be tracked on their own, separately from the certification.
Sources
- Georgia Department of Economic Development, “Georgia Industrial Sites Earn Shovel-Ready Certification,” September 17, 2026. https://georgia.org/press-releases/2026/georgia-industrial-sites-earn-shovel-ready-certification
- Georgia Department of Economic Development, “Certified Sites,” checked September 28, 2026. https://georgia.org/sites/certified-sites
Featured photo: The commercial historic district of Louisville, Georgia, seat of Jefferson County, where the Louisville Airport Industrial Park is among the newly certified GRAD Select sites. Location context; the photo does not show the industrial park. Photo: Bubba73, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Cropped from the original.
