Macon’s industrial authority recruits and keeps big businesses

When the pine trees were being felled to make way for Interstate 75 through Macon, local leaders saw their city could prosper from its place on the new nationwide highway network.

But they added another thing, too: a new local agency meant to lure companies to Bibb County’s exits.

From 1962 to now, the mission of the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority, or MBCIA, has remained the same: Luring “jobs and, of course, growing the tax base,” said Stephen Adams, its executive director. “Those are the two fundamental things that we’re after.” 

The idea is that residents pay lower tax bases as the county’s tax base grows by adding industries that often have multimillion dollar operations.

The authority — created by a constitutional amendment approved by Bibb County voters on Nov. 6, 1962 — wields special powers to help accomplish its goals. It has the ability to issue revenue bonds to finance the development and construction of industrial sites. The authorities also can offer low-cost loans and deals that exempt industries from property taxes for a set number of years.

Soon after its formation, the MBCIA set its sights on 300 acres near the northern edge of Houston County that had been used in the 1940s to train pilots during World War II.There, it developed an industrial park at Cochran Field, now Middle Georgia Regional Airport.

In 1965, the county broke ground on a manufacturing plant for its first industrial park occupant: Hehr Products Corporation, a nationwide company that made and distributed aluminum windows for mobile homes.

Over the decades that followed, companies like Geico, YKK, Bass Pro Shops, Amazon, Kohl’s Irving Consumer Products, Tyson Foods, Nichiha Fiber Cement and Kumho Tires Georgia were escorted to town by the development authority.

How Macon bags business

The MBCIA is running out of available acreage for industry even as it works to recruit more. Now, the authority is looking, more closely than ever, at the companies it’s trying to attract.

“There’s only so much land left for development,” Adams said. “With each success we have, that reduces our land inventory.”

That said, the authority remains aggressive.

In addition to acting as land developers for industries, Adams said, the industrial authority recruits new businesses and encourages the county’s existing industries to expand.

“We spend a great bit of time, energy, resources, money in identifying and developing industrial sites because, when that recruitment process starts, it starts with a phone call from a company that we have no way of knowing is interested in us until they make that phone call. And if we don’t have our product ready to go, we’re not going to be able to respond to the inquiry,” Adams said.

The Macon Water Authority helps to pave the way by pitching in money each year and entering into contracts with companies that include rates far below residential consumer rates. The water authority makes annual payments of $704,000 to MBCIA. The money is deposited in a no-interest loan fund, which is used to buy more land for prospective industrial development.

“That’s really been our difference-maker,” Adams said. 

The annual payments have allowed the MBCIA to “acquire and develop that land on the front-end and have that in our inventory” before an industry has even expressed an interest.

Once a company decides to locate on that already-developed land, “the deal is, any development costs have to be repaid,” he said. “We are constantly trying to identify suitable properties for industrial uses and that suitability is a pretty complex process by itself.”

The MBCIA undergoes a state certification process called the Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development, GRAD, to ensure its properties are shovel-ready for fast-track construction.

“If a company comes in and sees that we have that GRAD survey, they know that they’re not going to find a threat to the endangered species, a wetland,” Adams said of the certification that ensures “no deal-killers.”

Buying land for a future use requires money going out without the certainty of money coming in, which “is a very difficult proposition for the majority of people,” Adams said.

But, he said, attracting industry is a balancing act, “to give ourselves the best shot at it when the shot comes.”

‘A lot of dates’

Companies typically hire a consultant to help them find sites, and communities all over the country are clamoring for attention.

Adams said no two projects are alike. Every company has different reasons for relocating or expanding.

“They might have utility requirements that are driving it. They might have a proximity to their customer. That’s why there are site-selection consultants,” Adams said. “They are experts being able to evaluate not only the community, but the specific piece of land and the overall business climate.”

Most of the time, Adams said, the authority doesn’t know what business it is courting until much later in the process.

For example, Irving Tissue told its consultant it wanted to remain in the Southeast, where its market was growing. The consultant started with about 70 prospective cities.

“Tissue does not ship very efficiently, so you have to manufacture the product within a proximity of your customer base,” Adams said. “They brought in the site-selection consultants and said, ‘Hey, this is how much water we use, how much power we use, this is how much land we think we need.’”

The tissue-maker’s consultant evaluated the county’s graduation rates, cost of living, business climate and more.

“They’re looking for a way to make their job easier and looking for reasons that you won’t check the boxes that the company wants you to check,” Adams said.

Once the consultant whittled the contending cities down to 10, it began taking company officials to visit each of them in person.

“I joke around sometimes and use the metaphor of dating, that we go on a lot of dates,” Adams said of courting prospective industries. “A lot of them are first dates. … A lot of companies go through this whole entire process and get to the end and say, ‘You know what? The conditions aren’t right, the market’s not right.’ … A majority of the time it has nothing to do with us as a community. It’s their business model.”

MBCIA does its own homework on the companies, too, sizing them up to see if they are a good fit for the county. The authority examines the wages they pay, utility usage and what the company’s current communities have to say about it.

“You can tell a lot by looking in the parking lot,” Adams said. “You see what kind of cars there are people are driving and that lets you know what the wages are. … I don’t think what people really realize is the amount of due diligence that we do into the companies as well.”

Finding a good fit — and keeping it

Finding a stable industry is one thing. Maintaining a good relationship with it — and an open line of communication — is another.

MBCIA learned this the hard way in the early 2000s when one of its largest employers closed, leaving more than 2,000 high-wage earners unemployed.

Brown & Williamson built a $150 million plant on 204 acres in 1974, a year before the Macon Mall opened on Eisenhower Parkway.

The Kentucky cigarette manufacturer operated in Macon for 32 years before closing in 2006 following a merger with R.J. Reynolds.

“That sent shockwaves through the community,” Adams said. “It was a very noticeable blip in our economic data when they closed, just by nature of the sponsorships and the places they’re involved, the nonprofits. Their wages were significantly higher than the prevailing wage.”

The closure of Brown & Williamson was not something the industrial authority could have prevented, Adams said, but is working hard not to be “caught off guard” in similar situations.

‘Our biggest carrot’

Authorities across the state offer property tax discounts to companies they’re courting that can amount to millions of dollars over years. The companies typically get discounts for 10 or 15 years.

BrightFarms, Irving Tissue and several other companies are part of the authority’s PILOT program, which stands for Payment In Lieu of Taxes. In short, the authority owns the land and leases it to those companies for a set number of years.

The authority’s property cannot be taxed because it is a government agency, so it collects the lease payments and returns that money to the coffers of the county and school board at the end of each fiscal year.

“That’s definitely our biggest carrot,” Adams said of the incentive. “That is what allows us to show we want to partner with you. … We do put clawbacks in these agreements that if you don’t meet those jobs and investment thresholds, we can take the money back. The good part is like the tax abatement does not happen without the investment. So you don’t get the tax abatement without having made the money, put the money in.”

Ultimately, it’s an arrangement that allows everyone to benefit, he said.

“We want them to have every ability when the market conditions allow for them to grow and create more jobs and more taxable investments here,” Adams said. “There’s a lot of bread crumbs that come from these larger industries. … In theory, we’re bringing in companies that everybody wins off of it. So, the ‘high tide floats all boats’ mindset comes to mind.’”

MBCIA believes the best industry matches for Bibb County are in manufacturing, aerospace, logistics, back office operations and food processing.

Recently, the MBCIA partnered with the school district and the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce to create a program to prepare students for high-demand, technology-driven careers, according to the authority’s description on its website.

Most companies collect detailed information about the communities in which they are considering doing business.

Educational attainment is a key detail. The success of students in the Bibb County School District has a sizable impact on how prospective industries view Macon as a potential location for their businesses. In the end, site-selection consultants have an obligation to get the best deal for their clients, Adams said, adding “you will get asked for everything.” And the MBCIA has an obligation to get the best deal for Macon residents.

“It is a very competitive business,” he said. “We have lost out the projects that were heavily incentivized by other communities and other states, and that’s OK. We don’t want to incentivize a project in a way that hurts us down the road.”

Fast facts

Board members include Chair Robert E. Fountain Jr., Vice Chair Dwight Jones, Ember Bishop Bentley, Lester Miller and Cassandra Washington. One seat is vacant.

Public meetings for 2026 are set to take place at 12:30 p.m. at MBCIA headquarters, 439 Mulberry St., on April 6, May 4, June 1 July 13, Aug. 3, Sept. 14, Oct. 5, Nov. 2 and Dec. 7.

This story is part of “Power,” a series by The Melody examining local authorities — quasi-governmental bodies that make consequential decisions about housing, water, transit, development, health care and public spending — that shape life in Macon-Bibb County. Read the series at maconmelody.com/power.