Floyd County GDP beginning to grow
The county’s increase of 0.8 percent remains behind neighboring areas.
Rome and Floyd County’s inflation-adjusted gross domestic product grew by $25 million from 2013 to 2014 — a significant jump from the $14 million GDP growth between 2012 and 2013.
The growth rate ranked Rome 219 out of 381 metropolitan areas across the country, according to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis. The Rome metropolitan area covers all of Floyd County.
“Positive growth is good,” said Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce President Al Hodge. “It is further validation of good public policy.”
The BEA’s numbers show the output of goods and services by business and industry in Rome and Floyd County amounted to $3.184 billion in 2014, an increase of 0.8 percent from $3.159 billion in 2013. That continued the slow upward trend of 0.5 percent growth from 2012 to 2013.
Prior to that, the inflation-adjusted GDP had decreased three years in a row.
The lower-tier ranking among the nation’s metro areas is nothing to be concerned about, according to Georgia Highlands College economics professor Bruce Jones, because Rome is one of the smallest metro areas in the country.
“I haven’t seen anything that I consider to be negative,” Jones said.
The Athens-Clarke County inflation-adjusted GDP for 2014 was $6.929 billion, up 2 percent from the previous
year; Dalton’s checked in at $5.305 billion, up 2.9 percent; and Gainesville reported $7.327 billion, up 2.1 percent.
Gadsden, Alabama, reported an inflation-adjusted GDP of $2.696 billion in 2014, up 1.5 percent.
Geographic limitation
The steady growth in Rome over the last three years can be attributed, in part, to growth by existing industries.
Neaton and F&P Georgia, two automotive industry suppliers, have expanded in the last several years. International Paper is in the process of making major equipment and technological upgrades to enhance its production capabilities.
Bekaert has overcome a huge fire that slowed the installation of close to $30 million in equipment upgrades to improve its output, and Georgia Pacific is getting environmental approval to install a continuous kiln that will increase its lumber production capacity by about 60 percent.
Jones said the “geographic limitation” of Rome and Floyd County makes it more difficult to recruit new manufacturers to the community.
“If we had somebody who wanted to come in here and build something the size of the Kia plant (near West Point), we don’t have a place to put it. There’s no place that’s level for that size a plant,” Jones said. “One of the challenges for Floyd County has been always that we don’t have huge industrial sites, we’ve got small industrial sites.”
Hodge said there is a direct correlation between interest from industries and the amount of land that is owned publicly, has the infrastructure, and is graded and ready to go.
“You don’t even get a look if you don’t have that,” Hodge said. “We don’t have a mega-tract and are unlikely to get one, so we are very actively marketing what we have.”
The Berry Corporate Center, along both sides of Technology Parkway in West Rome, has approximately 800 acres available. That acreage is largely bisected by the parkway.
“Of course there are some understandable restrictions and prohibitions,” Hodge said.
A couple of those tracts are larger than 100 acres, which seems to be the magic number when it comes to attracting new industries. However, one issue with the Berry parcels is the lack of depth on the lots on either side of the road.
The Chamber is also looking for buyers for the 100-acre North Floyd Industrial Park site at the northwest corner of Ga. 140 and 53. It also was able to get $8 million included in the 2013 special
purpose, local option sales tax package to buy new industrial sites but, thus far, no large new sites have been identified.
Around Georgia
Looking strictly at the changes from 2013 to 2014, the wholesale and retail trade sector made a 1.10 percent rebound to lead the way.
Jones said the growth in Georgia has been concentrated in and around Atlanta more so in recent years. The GDP figures certainly support that. Albany registered a 1.4 percent decline from 2013 to 2014 while Brunswick was down 2 percent. Both cities have experienced five straight years of declining economic activity.
Warner Robins reported a drop of 1.7 percent, while Hinesville was down 0.6 percent.
On the plus side, Savannah was up 3.7 percent to lead the state in growth. Valdosta saw a 3.1 percent increase, and Atlanta was up 3 percent.
Macon’s GDP increased 1.8 percent, but Columbus at 0.3 percent and Augusta at 0.2 percent grew even more slowly than the Rome metro area.
Jones said rapid growth comes with a down side — the possibility of a rapid decline when the economy stalls.
“I’m perfectly satisfied with a 1 percent growth rate,” he said. “I’d rather see it at 5 percent because my 401(k) would grow faster, but I’d rather not see dips of 5 percent either.”