Cartersville-Bartow County was chosen by Southern Business & Development Magazine - Winter 2014

March 12, 2014

Ten Low Cost Manufacturing Locations to Reshore your Plant near Major Southern airports

Coweta County/Newnan, Ga.
Transportation and education have played important roles in Coweta County's economic history. From the early days of the railroads, to the interstate highway system, to air travel, Coweta County has grown and prospered thanks to its close proximity to these vital transportation resources. Located along Interstate 85, Coweta County is less than 30 minutes away from the world's busiest airport – Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – and is served by both CSX and Norfolk Southern railroads.

Coweta County is also an education innovator. Central Educational Center is the model for Georgia's career academy initiative and is preparing tomorrow's workforce today. Plus, local partnerships helped construct a new campus for West Georgia Technical College and are renovating an existing building as the new local campus for the University of West Georgia.

Monroe, N.C.
The city of Monroe is adjacent to Charlotte and is 40 minutes from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. The community has had a long tradition of manufacturing centered on metalworking and precision machining, and over 30 percent of its workforce is currently employed in manufacturing. Monroe is also within Union County, one of the fastest growing counties in the U.S., which provides a stable and ample workforce. Local industries have just begun an awareness campaign to keep manufacturing careers (including apprenticeships) in the forefront of the minds of both students and parents. With a developed industrial workforce, a strong vocational education attainment and close proximity to one of the most highly-favored international airports in the world, Monroe is an ideal location for companies looking to reshore back to the United States.

Chambers County/Baytown, Texas
For corporations seeking to reshore manufacturing operations, Baytown-West Chambers County, Texas is an ideal location, strategically situated on the Texas coastal plains only 22 miles east of downtown Houston, within 25 minutes of Houston Hobby Airport and within 45 minutes of George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Baytown-West Chambers County is home to ExxonMobil, Chevron-Phillips, Bayer, Enterprise Products and an ever expanding petrochemical and industrial cluster. The area possesses robust transportation infrastructure to facilitate multimodal distribution.

In addition to the airports, infrastructure assets include the Cedar Crossing Industrial Park, Port of Houston Ship Channel, Union Pacific and BNSF rail services, an efficient pipeline distribution system, along with numerous roads and highways for trucking. Transportation is enhanced by the Houston Grand Parkway, a 177-mile outer loop designed to serve the regional mobility needs of Houston and surrounding counties. The Baytown portion spans a distance of 12 miles and redirects commercial traffic away from populated areas, reducing traffic congestion and improving accessibility.

The area is supported by a vast labor shed supported by exemplary school districts, universities and community colleges, including Lee College.

New Braunfels, Texas
New Braunfels, Texas is located on Interstate 35 between Austin and San Antonio. Flanked by the Comal and Guadalupe Rivers and Canyon Lake, and home to Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resorts, it is a top tourist destination in the United States. Population continues to grow at three times the rate of Texas. . .45 percent in the last decade. In 2013, IBEX Global announced bringing 600 jobs, and along with other local New Braunfels company expansions, completely filling the void of a large company layoff of more than 1,100 jobs within six months, as well as absorb over half of the office space left vacant.

The 2,400-acre mixed use development, Veramendi, plans to build over 5,000 new single-family homes, as well as become home to a Howard Payne University campus and expanded Christus Santa Rosa-New Braunfels healthcare services. Resolute Health will wrap up their $200 million hospital in June 2014. Commercial and industrial tax values have increased 93 percent over the last decade and median household income has risen 73 percent since 2003. New Braunfels is located just 30 minutes from the San Antonio International Airport and 50 minutes from the Austin Bergstrom International Airport.

Northern Kentucky
Northern Kentucky features over 250 acres of ready-to-go industrial sites on Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) land with immediate access to taxiways and runways, and is also served by three interstate exits. CVG is a hotbed of activity with a DHL "superhub" processing 92 percent of all U.S. delivery shipments, as well as all Canadian, Mexican and Latin American shipments. The 250 acres are ideally situated for immediate office, retail, commercial aviation and industrial development use.

A newly constructed 3.5-mile, four-lane, divided highway connects two major thoroughfares and the airport. The new road alleviates congestion while providing expansion and development opportunities at CVG. Manufacturers such as ZF Steering, GE Aviation and Ellison Surface Technologies enjoy easy access to CVG, DHL and other carriers to ship product around the U.S. and the world. A growing sector in Northern Kentucky is ecommerce logistics; Amazon.com, Groupon Goods and iHerb have increased their presence in the region because of the transportation infrastructure and access to DHL.

Hundreds of companies are growing and succeeding in Northern Kentucky due to a highly skilled local workforce, favorable tax incentives, flourishing communities that support a high quality of life, and easy access to CVG, one of the nation's largest and fastest growing centers of cargo transport.

With many national developers in the region, a seasoned real estate community and available shovel-ready sites, Northern Kentucky is "opportunity central" for new building.

Cartersville/Bartow County, Ga.
Bartow County has a long history with traditional industries that are reshoring back to the South, including textiles, floor coverings and automotive components. There have been a slew of large projects announced in Bartow County, Ga., in recent years. Its outstanding location north of Atlanta on Interstate 75, just 49 minutes from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, is certainly one of the reasons for Bartow County's success.

In December, Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing announced a $371 million expansion of its facility in Bartow County that will add 650 new jobs. In August of 2013, Shaw Industries Group announced an $85 million modular carpet tile plant that will house 500 workers in Bartow County. Other major employers enjoying the small town life of Cartersville, but with a location near the world's busiest airport, include T.I. Group Automotive, Gerdau, Yanmar America, Beaulieu Commercial and Americo.

Culpeper, Va.
Located about an hour from Dulles International Airport, Culpeper is just far enough away from the D.C. center for reshored manufacturers to benefit from federal government customers without the high operating costs found in most of Northern Virginia. The Culpeper area has a population of over 50,000 and is still largely a rural area with agribusiness remaining a large part of the area's economy.

Some of the manufacturers who call Culpeper home include Euro-Composites (an aerospace supplier for Lockheed Martin), Continental Automotive (which manufactures components for antilock brakes) and furniture maker Hardwood Artisans.

Clarksville/Montgomery County, Tenn.
Located northwest of downtown Nashville directly on Interstate 40, Clarksville is about a 50-minute drive to Nashville International Airport. Clarksville/Montgomery County hit the jackpot in October when it beat out a site in South Carolina for Korean tire maker Hankook Tire's $800 million, 1,800-job plant that is expected to become operational in 2016.

Clarksville has a long history of being one of the most manufacturing-centered economies in the Nashville region. Some of the larger manufacturers in Montgomery County include Trane Company, Akebono Brake Corporation and Bridgestone Metalpha.

Gaston County, N.C.
Most of Gaston County is within a 30-minute drive of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport, which provides a portal for business and leisure to the world. Similar to Monroe, N.C., which is located on the other side of Charlotte, Gaston County has a long heritage as a hardworking, manufacturing center.

Like many manufacturing towns in North Carolina, Gaston County was a textile industry center. Today, the economy in Gaston County's manufacturing base is diverse, with employers such as Freightliner, FKA Wix Filtration Group, American & Efird, Pharr Yarns and Dole Fresh Foods all employing at least 500 in the county.

Sherman, Texas
Located about an hour from the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and home to around 38,000 residents, Sherman has something many communities in Texas are fighting over -- sufficient water supplies. Thanks to Lake Texoma, there are over 72 million gallons of water for industry, business and homes in the Sherman/Grayson County area.

Sherman is also ready to fill another basic need of manufacturers. The Panda Sherman Power Project, a natural gas-fueled, 758-megawatt combined-cycle power generating facility, is scheduled to open this year. The plant will provide power to the entire Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid, but more importantly for reshoring prospects looking at Sherman, it will power the city's 3,300-acre business park, which houses the plants of Texas Instruments, Sunny Delight and Tyson Foods.

Article from Southern Business & Development