CAIRO — Right now it’s a big empty shell with exposed dirt in one section, pigeon poop on the floor of another and a few sections where the roof needs to be repaired.

But the Grady County Joint Development Authority hopes the $1 million bank loan it secured to buy the old W.B. Roddenbery pickle plant will revive industry in the old building.

Rick McCaskill, Grady County Joint Development Authority executive director, said the JDA closed on the deal April 29.

Through the purchase, the JDA gained an approximately 350,000 square feet building and a 95-acre land tract.

A few years ago, syrup production, boiled peanuts and pickle processing were done in the building.

“This to us, is a heavy-duty manufacturing area,” McCaskill said.

He estimated about 50,000 square feet of the facility will undergo roof renovation, in particular the area where pickle brine used to be stored.

McCaskill said space at the old plant could be used for warehouses, though that is not the JDA’s intent.

“In reality, it’s going to be an industrial complex,” he said. “It was built in segments, so it’s really easy to divide up.”

McCaskill is hopeful that new industries, particularly manufacturers, will lease space on the property.

“We all lost the sewing industry,” McCaskill said. “We lost the Roddenbery Company. The Dean (Foods) building was so old, it was cheaper to move the pickles to North Carolina.”

He said now that the JDA owns the property and intends to lease space as cheaply as $1 per square foot, new opportunities could emerge for Grady County’s industrial development.

“Every time people go over the overpass, they look at the old pickle plant and think about what we used to have,” McCaskill said. He hopes the JDA’s control of the old plant will change that attitude.

“We have a few prospects,” he said. McCaskill would not divulge an exact figure, but mentioned companies from Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and some local companies were considering moving to the old plant.

“It’s been totally vacant for the last two-and-a-half years,” McCaskill said of most of the building’s space. He said some parts of the building have been vacant about 10 years.

McCaskill said one of the greatest benefits the JDA’s purchase could yield is jobs.

“We have a weakness in this community,” he said.

He said Cairo doesn’t have a lot of jobs that college students prefer to take. He hopes the plant’s new ownership will change that situation.

Roger Pierce Jr., 21, is one Cairo resident that looks forward to the prospect of new industries coming to town.

“I believe that it will be a good thing,” he said. “It’ll bring more jobs in to the community and it’ll help Cairo to grow more.”

Wanda Jesson, 49, of Cairo, agrees.

“I do believe that Grady County needs more industry because we need more jobs for the county,” she said.

“I would like to see a company come into the county that was willing to pay a wage that would support a family instead of a company that wants to settle in south Georgia because they think they can pay a low wage.”

Jesson said Grady County needed companies that would pay enough that parents could support their families.



To reach reporter Blenda Link, call 226-2400, ext. 227.