BOOM TIMES Fri, May 12, 2006 Developers like what area has to offer By MARY STARR The Brunswick News Brunswick and the Golden Isles has seen a lot of new development the past two decades. If recent announcements are any indication, it may be headed for another boom. Economic and development experts say there are a couple of reasons growth is on the rise in Glynn County, including: * Economic opportunity. * The desirability of living and working in a coastal community. * The retirement of baby boomers. The economic center. When people talk about development in Coastal Georgia, Glynn County always comes to the forefront of the discussion. That's because, according to Don Mathews, professor of economics at Coastal Georgia Community College, Glynn County is the economic center of a six- to eight-county area. "What we are seeing is not development that will serve one county of 75,000 people, but development that will serve a regional economy of 200,000 or more people," Mathews said. Being an economic center gets developers' attention, Mathews said. "Glynn and the surrounding areas have become big enough to attract the attention of developers from outside the area," Mathews said. "We've been discovered, and when entrepreneurs discover opportunity, they rush to seize it." Coastal location important. Growth shouldn't be a surprise, said Vernon Martin, executive director of the Coastal Georgia Regional Development Council. "Eighty percent of the U.S. population will live within 50 miles of a coastline by 2020," said Martin, explaining that lakefront property also is considered coastline. "Demographers have been predicting this for a long time." Martin said Coastal Georgia's location is prime because of its location in the Sun Belt and its good transportation network. Martin also attributes the growth to old-fashioned supply and demand. "They're not making any more coastal property," he said. "And the influx of people, mostly from the Northeast, will cause property prices to rise, which will in turn cause most of the affordable housing to be located west of Interstate 95. You're already seeing that beginning to occur." Joey Cason, vice-chair of communications for the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce, said development could be symptomatic of a spillover effect from larger metropolitan areas. A conference Cason recently attended on urban redevelopment was eye-opening, he said. Cason discovered that between the years of 2020 and 2030, the Atlanta metropolitan area will add between four million and six million people. The Golden Isles, while growing at a rapid pace, will continue to offer a smaller, quieter community than a large urban center, Cason said. Cason said the abundance of developable land with great views is a plus for Glynn County. Wendy Beeker, a member of the board of the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce, a small business owner and chair of the Historic Brunswick Business Association, has a different take of the new wave of interest in Glynn County. "Big developments tend to overshadow the work that's already being done and will continue to be done by the small business owner, but they have brought us a spotlight," Beeker said. That spotlight, she said, is driving up the prices of everything, but people are paying the higher prices for business space and homes because of Brunswick's unique characteristics, including its proximity to deep water and the town's waterfront. Beeker said Brunswick's waterfront has been underappreciated for too long. Of the projects on the table, the Lewis Crab Factory purchase and the proposed redevelopment of the site is the best idea and the one that will benefit the downtown area the most, Beeker said. Nearby to downtown, demolition crews are clearing the site of a former motel and apartments at Parkwood Drive and U.S. 17 for condominiums and retail and office spaces. Boomers are retiring. Baby boomers, that group born in the post-World War II boom years of 1946 through 1964, are beginning to retire, said Martin. "Most of them are from the Northeast, and because their property values are so much higher than ours, we still look like a good deal to them," Martin said.