worked for years before landing companies that will employ thousands

By Tom Spigolon tspigolon@covnews.com

In 1998, Newton County took the unusual step of partnering with three adjacent counties to create a Joint Development Authority (JDA).

It then made a multi-million-dollar investment in land for an industrial park — one that put the counties in a significant amount of debt as they sought to lure the world’s top industries and best available jobs to the area.

Despite a series of financial roadblocks and public criticism of the JDA’s Stanton Springs bioscience technology park for more than a decade, the investment finally began to pay off with the announcement of its first industry — what is now Takeda Pharmaceuticals — in 2012.

The JDA now oversees parks in which two billion-dollar companies operate and a third is planning to open — all creating thousands of jobs.

The board of the Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton Counties includes two members each from the four counties — including the chairmen of each county’s board of commissioners and one additional member from each county.

Newton County’s members are County Chairman Marcello Banes and Jerry Silvio, a Covington engineer and development company owner.

Industries in the two parks make — or will make — payments in lieu of property taxes that are shared by the governments of the four counties and the city of Social Circle.

Newton County receives 37.5% of proceeds from Stanton Springs South properties. It will only receive 35.625% from Stanton Springs North properties as part of an agreement to give the Social Circle city government 5%. The North park is partially in the Social Circle city limits.

The 1,500-acre Stanton Springs South park straddling the line between Newton and Walton counties is accessed off U.S. Hwy. 278, just off I-20’s Exit 101 near Social Circle. The state of Georgia’s Bioscience Training Center is also located there.

In 2018, the JDA landed an even bigger national industry when Facebook announced it would build a data center in Stanton Springs.

At the time, Facebook’s Newton Data Center was one of the biggest economic investments in Georgia’s 233-year history after its announcement in 2018. The California-based social media company initially invested $750 million with the creation of its 1 million-square-foot facility and is expected to invest up to $42 billion over the next two decades.

Facebook later began construction on a second data center nearby. A third data center is under construction by an unnamed company, as well.