Nothing is rising above the ground yet, but progress is continuing at the site for the Rivian electric vehicle manufacturing facility coming to Stanton Springs, an industrial and mixed-use development site in the edge of Social Circle.
Members of the Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton Counties (JDA), which oversees Stanton Springs -- located off Interstate 20 at U.S. Highway 278, heard that news at their April 28 meeting from Andrea Gray, a Monroe attorney who serves as the JDA’s counsel.
Delivering an update on activities during the first quarter of this year at Stanton Springs, Gray told JDA members that work at the Rivian site currently is focused on installation of underground utilities. She added that vertical construction – the point at which structures begin to rise from the ground – remains on track to begin by the end of this year.
Currently visible on and near the Stanton Springs acreage that will host the Rivian manufacturing plant, in an area designated Stanton Springs North on the northern side of I-20, is construction of an entrance road off of Highway 278 near the interstate highway.
A little farther along Highway 278, in the edge of Social Circle, signage and a row of construction trailers, along with vehicles moving along a gravel roadway onto the highway, provide additional evidence of progress on the Rivian facility.
In a related development during her report on first-quarter activities at Stanton Springs, Gray told the JDA that Georgia Power is continuing its work on an electrical power substation and the supply lines that will ultimately serve the Rivian facility.
Additionally, Gray said, the substation and supply lines will serve an expansion of Meta (formerly Facebook) data center facilities in Stanton Springs South, located on the south side of I-20 off Highway 278. The “rapid deployment structures” signaling the Meta expansion are already visible, Gray told the JDA.
In addition to Meta, Stanton Springs South hosts Takeda, a pharmaceuticals manufacturer. Also on the grounds of Stanton Springs South is the Georgia BioScience Training Center, an initiative of the Technical College System of Georgia. Comprising 43,000 square feet of laboratory space, classrooms, a computer lab, meeting rooms and administrative spaces, the training center is intended to support the branding of Georgia as a global center for bioscience industries.
Takeda, Meta – and now, Rivian – provide revenue to the four counties through a combination of property taxes (for which each company currently receives varying abatements) and payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT). Over the several years that this arrangement has been in place, the four JDA counties have received net payments totaling $60 million as of April, authority members learned at their April 28 meeting.
The money is distributed to the four counties based on their respective initial investments in Stanton Springs. Walton and Newton counties claim 37.5% of those funds, with Morgan County getting 15% and Jasper County claiming 10%. Rivian’s PILOT is somewhat different, with 5% of its total payments going to the nearby city of Social Circle.
PILOT and other funds due to the four counties from the Stanton Springs enterprises are subsequently distributed to the various governments, including school systems, within the respective jurisdictions.
Among the latest payments to the JDA are an $8 million outlay from Meta in April, and a $1.5 million payment in March from Rivian.
Rivian broke ground for its Stanton Springs North facility in September. The first vehicles are projected to roll out of the manufacturing plant in 2028.
Taking a brief look at the relatively new second quarter of this year at Stanton Springs, Gray told JDA members that site improvement work on an 88-acre segment of the development, designed to attract new enterprises, is getting set to go out for bids.
Also according to Gray, the JDA’s efforts to identify and address emergency services needs at Stanton Springs are expected to continue in the year’s second quarter. Late last year, the JDA voted to hire a public safety consultant, at a cost of more than $80,000, to help develop emergency service plans for Stanton Springs.
The JDA had initially planned to develop its own plan for providing those services, but abandoned those efforts amid some consternation among the existing public emergency service providers in its four counties.
