A newly established four-county development authority has filed for a permit on a 1,900-acre site just off Interstate 16 in Bryan County to construct a major manufacturing facility widely believed to be for Volvo automakers.
The site, some 28 miles from the Georgia Ports Authority gates, will have all the amenities of a megasite, including road and rail access, according to the permit application.
The permit was filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on behalf of the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority of Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham and Effingham counties.
The application comes a week after the state of South Carolina filed for a wetlands permit on similar property in Berkeley County, just north of Charleston, a site they have reportedly shown to Volvo officials.
Reports indicate the competition to land Volvo’s first U.S. auto plant appears to have narrowed to the two states, and both are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to win the project and the thousands of jobs that would come with it.
Volvo officials have said a decision on the new facility, which could eventually employ up to 4,000 people, may be made within the next few weeks.
Savannah Economic Development Authority President Trip Tollison, who filed the application on behalf of the joint authority, responded with “no comment” when asked about the project Friday, as did Bryan County Commission Chairman Jimmy Burnsed, who also chairs the joint development authority.
At the Georgia Department of Economic Development in Atlanta, spokeswoman Stefanie Paupeck Harper said, “We have no comment.”
Billy Birdwell, spokesman for the Savannah District Corps of Engineers, said the permit application will go through the same process as all such requests.
“We just started the 30-day public comment period yesterday,” he said Friday. “We won’t be able to even start making any determination until that is complete.”
The Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority, comprised of representatives from the four counties’ economic development and county government leadership, held its first meeting last month at Black Creek Golf Club, not far from the proposed megasite. That meeting consisted mostly of an hour-long, closed executive session “involving real estate.”
Volvo Car Corp., a Swedish premium automobile manufacturer owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group of China, announced last month it would invest $500 million in a U.S. plant as it continues its bid to take the luxury Volvo brand global.
The company currently has four manufacturing facilities, two in China and two in Europe.
“Volvo Cars cannot claim to be a true global car maker without an industrial presence in the U.S.,” said Håkan Samuelsson, the automaker’s president and CEO. “The U.S. is an absolutely crucial part of our global transformation, and this announcement makes it perfectly clear that Volvo is in the U.S. to stay.”
The new plant also means Volvo, which has been doing business in the United States since 1955, will be able to meet and ultimately exceed its medium-range volume target of selling 100,000 cars a year in the states. In addition to becoming an integral part of Volvo’s global manufacturing footprint, serving both the U.S. and export markets, it will help accelerate the introduction of build-to-order in the U.S. and help limit the impact of currency fluctuations, Volvo officials have said.
Volvo dealers in the U.S. are delighted with the prospect of the new plant on home turf, said Chip Gengras, who chairs the Volvo Dealer Council in the U.S.
“It clearly illustrates Volvo’s long-term commitment to this market,” he said.
Company officials have said they hope to begin production at the new plant in 2018, with capacity topping out at around 120,000 vehicles a year.