Georgia International Trade Center
Effingham County, GA
The Georgia International Trade Center is a 1,150-acre light industrial and manufacturing park is located ten miles from the Georgia Ports Authority and is built to accommodate 7.2 million square feet of industrial facilities. With direct access to CSX and Norfolk Southern railways, the site can easily access 44% of United States consumers and manufacturers within a day of transit. Furthermore, the site’s proximity to Georgia Ports Authority – Port of Savannah world’s largest and fastest-growing container port, makes the Trade Center a key player in opening our region’s industries to international commerce.
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Thomas & Hutton has worked with Chesterfield, developer of the Trade Center since its inception, and worked on the site as the Exley Tract prior to Chesterfield purchasing the land from the Exley family. For the development of the Trade Center, we have provided due diligence assistance; water, wastewater, and stormwater master planning; a road, water, and sewer infrastructure design; survey; and landscape architecture. Services also include the design of an elevated water tank to provide Industrial level flows and pressures for the Trade Center. For each individual site at the Trade Center, Thomas & Hutton provided master planning, survey, full site design, and landscape architecture services. Within the Trade Center, we designed a total of seven warehouse/distribution facilities within a 19-month period, totaling about 4.3 million square feet.
Extensive coordination between Thomas & Hutton, Chesterfield, Effingham County, presiding regulatory bodies, and various stakeholders was critical to the development of the Trade Center. Thomas & Hutton worked with the Exley family and their brokers through the original land entitlement process, drafting and updating PUD documents with Effingham Counties for negotiation and purchase. Thomas & Hutton’s involvement with the site’s history allowed Chesterfield to proceed with planning, design, and construction at a rapid pace, enabling them to aggressively pursue tenants for planned buildings. As a result, the Trade Center developed on a more expeditious timeline than originally anticipated.
Existing wetlands on-site presented challenges during entitlement and design. The site is crossed in multiple locations by jurisdictional wetlands. Thomas & Hutton worked closely with the original landowners and brokers, as well as RLC to assist with the update and extension of the favorable wetland determination and wetland permit. Our water resources team collaborated with the civil team for stormwater master planning, the design of the wetland crossings, and a master storm drainage system for the site.
