Sat, May 12, 2007

By HANK ROWLAND

The Brunswick News

More than flowers are blossoming this spring in Brunswick and the Golden Isles.

Shopping centers, some offering a mix of office and retail space, are springing up on practically every corner around the fringes of Colonial Mall, an established shopping center on Altama Connector, and Glynn Isles Market, a new center at Altama Avenue and Golden Isles Parkway.

On Scranton Connector alone, the road that links Scranton Road with the Altama Connector, construction is well under way on at least three small shopping centers.

Don Wright, an associate broker with Brooks Jessup and Associates, the company behind the Scranton Connector centers, says expect to see others in the near future. The reason: More and more developers in Florida and Atlanta are casting their eyes ? and cash ? upon Glynn County.

"They are bullish on our area, on our growth and on everything they read about the coast," Wright said.

Attention given this area of the coast by the national media in recent years has been mostly positive, citing among the region's attributes tremendous growth potential and an economy resistant to recession.

That, coupled with obstacles and rising costs developers are encountering elsewhere, is intensifying the allure of Brunswick and the Golden Isles.

In Atlanta, dwindling space and the spiraling cost of what land is available is turning developers heads south, toward the coast.

"They are sort of tired of doing business in the big city, where land is so expensive," Wright said.

In Florida insurance rates are driving builders north. A good many of them are out of Jacksonville and St. Augustine.

Wright is selling or leasing retail or office space in the two strip centers on Scranton Connector, including one that shares a corner with Scranton Road. He also is leasing or selling space in the new KO Shopping Plaza on Commerce Drive.

He said he expects other shopping centers to pop up as word gets out about opportunities to be found Glynn County.

South of Savannah, Glynn County is already king of retail sales, and it is a title it is sure to keep once the largest new shopping centers under construction, Glynn Isles Market, opens this summer.

With $1.1 billion in annual retail sales, Glynn County is already generating twice as much in sales as its next nearest rival, Camden County, according to figures compiled by the Georgia Extension Service in 2005, the most recent data available.

It also had more pull-in power, drawing more consumers from other counties to its shopping districts, a factor that played prominently in pushing sales on the mainland and islands over the $1 billion mark.

It is an amount that is certain to climb even higher when Glynn Isles Market joins the business community. The shopping center will double the number of chain stores in Brunswick, bringing in major retailers, such as Target, PetSmart and Lowe's.

Tony Sammons, chair of the six-county Southeast Georgia Joint Development Authority, said Glynn Isles Market's influence will be conducive to commerce and a favorable business climate.

"I think people are really beginning to look and see the opportunities that are here for retail development," he said.

Their recent discoveries include the fact that the population of the county increases substantially during the summer tourism season.

Glynn County, an attractive vacation and second-home spot because of its miles of coastline, literally fills up with tourists and part-time residents six to eighth months out of the year, he said.

"Our population doubles on (St. Simons) Island during certain times of the year," Sammons said. "There's a lot more opportunity there for retail sales."

Sammons predicts retail trade will take off even more once Glynn Isles Market opens with its national retailers. It will draw more shoppers to the area, which will enhance the community's magnetism to investors.

"Once Glynn Isles Market gets established, it will be a trendsetter, and you will see a lot more of them in the area," Sammons said. "Success breeds success, and if people see this one being successful, you can be sure another one will follow."

Woody Woodside, president of the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce, said the centers are locating where the action is.

"A lot of these stores look for traffic exposure," Woodside said. "If you look down Altama, the Spur and Altama Connector, you will see some of the highest traffic counts."

Woodside remembers the early 1980s, when shopping choices were fewer than they are today. Downtown Brunswick, Lanier Plaza and the Brunswick Mall ? the area today known as Cypress Mill Square ? were the primary places to shop on the mainland.

When the Brunswick Mall burned in 1984, pickings were even slimmer until Glynn Place Mall ? now Colonial Mall ? opened a year later.

"We've come a long ways to the days when the Brunswick Mall burned and a developer from Atlanta came to develop Glynn Place Mall," Woodside said. "And some good minds thought Glynn Place Mall would never work out."

It just boils down to the fact that Glynn County has more to offer.

"What's pulling more people here is a greater variety of choices for people to shop," Woodside said.

Dollar signs

Southeast Georgia counties generated millions of dollars in retail sales in 2005, the most recent year for which total are available. How they compare:

County Sales Pull*

Glynn $1.1 billion 1.27

Camden $603 million .98

McIntosh $163 million 1.47

Brantley $36 million .23

* A pull factor of 1 or higher indicates a county is pulling in shoppers from other areas; a pull factor of less than 1 indicates a county is losing shoppers to other areas.

Source: "The Georgia County Guide 2007," published by Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Georgia.