Charlotte Crane | 4/1/2010

Hamilton/Suwannee/Madison Counties

Job losses affected Hamilton and Suwannee counties, along with neighboring Columbia County, when PCS Phosphate at White Springs, Hamilton County’s largest employer, cut 168 from its 900-employee work force last fall, a reduction blamed on the weak economy. PCS Phosphate’s White Springs operation includes two chemical plants and a phosphate mine, producing mainly for fertilizer and animal feed markets. “2009 was a bad year across the board, and no exception here,’’ says PCS spokesman Mike Williams.

Similarly, several neighboring counties were adversely affected a year ago when Pilgrim’s Pride at Live Oak, Suwannee’s largest employer, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and laid off more than 500 employees, one-third of its work force. Since last summer, however, the company has hired 650 employees at Live Oak, for a total of 1,400 at the plant, feed mill and hatchery. A Brazilian meat company purchased a majority stake in Pilgrim’s Pride last year.

Edward Meggs, president and CEO of Madison County Community Bank and chairman of the Madison County Development Council, says two recently opened travel centers are contributing to tax revenues while also demonstrating that recent county infrastructure improvements at highway interchanges are paying off.

Business to Watch

» After two years of planning, Adage’s biopower project could be coming to fruition soon, pending the signing of a power purchase agreement, says Hamilton County coordinator Danny Johnson. The project will provide 400 construction jobs plus more than 125 permanent jobs in power production and fuel collection. The plant is the first of a dozen planned nationwide by Adage, a joint venture of Areva, an electricity transmission company, and Duke Energy Corp.

Lafayette/Columbia Counties

2009 wasn’t a good year, says Jim Poole, executive director for Columbia County Industrial Development Authority. [Photo: Ray Stanyard]

“Business is really dropping off,’’ says Jim Hollis, Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce chairman. Last year’s Pilgrim’s Pride cutbacks had tragic secondary effects in his county, says Hollis: “That put close to a dozen chicken farms in our county out of business, and it laid off a lot of people.’’

Except for carryover business development from 2008 — a year that brought two distribution centers plus retail and hospitality businesses to Columbia County — 2009 wasn’t a good year, says Jim Poole, executive director for Columbia County Industrial Development Authority. “We’re working on some things, though. We have one of the catalyst sites” — a site in one of Florida’s three Rural Areas of Critical Economic Concern designated for state funding to jump-start economic projects. “Target is a light manufacturing company.’’

Business to Watch

» Plum Creek, Florida’s largest private landowner, is partnering with Columbia County, CSX and state and local agencies on the proposed development of an inland port on 2,000 acres of company land; Plum Creek also owns the 500-acre catalyst site. The proposed port site would be accessible to the Jacksonville seaport via CSX rail and I-10 and also link to I-75. “We think there’s a strong potential there for logistics and distribution and light manufacturing,’’ says Poole.