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Rabun Business Park
Click here for information on Construction Bids or Job Applications!  The Rabun Business Park is an innovative adaptive-reuse of a vacant manufacturing facility, the former Fruit of the Loom textile plant. It represents a 971,905 square-foot multi-company park all under one roof, with 96 acres available on its campus for future expansion. Each company enjoys its own independent location, with parking, shipping, and office areas along with full access control to its space. Tenants also enjoy low rents and common area charges thanks to the community's commitment to attract and grow business in Rabun County. Rents can be significantly discounted at the Development Authority's discretion based on a company's creation of new full-time jobs and/or investment in equipment. Manufacturing space is available in sizes ranging from a few thousand square feet to 300,000 square feet or more. Over 20,000 square feet of office space is also available. The facility is owned by the Development Authority of Rabun County and professionally managed by Industrial Developments Incorporated (IDI), one of the leading management firms for large industrial facilities in the nation. The facility enjoys a water-withdrawal permit from the Little Tennessee River for process water of 3 million gallons per day as well as excess water-treatment capacity from an adjacent municipal treatment plant of 2 million gallons per day. Rabun County's leaders began to come together after its largest employer, Fruit of the Loom, closed its doors in August 2006. The facility represents one of the largest textile manufacturing plants in the country and employed over 1,000 people. The home construction industry absorbed many of these job losses, but it too plummeted in the real estate crash of 2008. With unemployment above 12 percent, the community began to investigate direct investment in industry in order to get its local economy back in a strong position. After examining a number of different options, Rabun County settled on an aggressive strategy to acquire, refurbish, and convert the entire Fruit of the Loom facility into a first-class manufacturing and distribution facility. Construction is now underway and expected to be complete in April 2011.  Response from the business community has been encouraging. The Development Authority in 2010 already has commitments from Gap Partners, a precision metal fabrication company, Parkdale Mills, one of the largest producers of yarn in the world, and Multitrade Rabun Gap, a "green" biofuel power plant for space in the facility. Together, these companies represent over 63 new jobs for Rabun County and over 150,000 square feet of space in the Rabun Business Park. Come see what drew them to our beautiful community! For more information on the Rabun Business Park or to inquire about available space, please contact the Development Authority's Executive Director Sean Brady at 706-782-4812 or sean@gamountains.com. Rabun County wants your business and looks forward to being a partner to help you grow your company and create new jobs in northeast Georgia. |
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