MOULTRIE, Ga. — With the opening of the most recent occupant at the Veterans Parkway shopping center anchored by Publix, employment brought by the development has grown to more than 200.

Surcheros Fresh Grill, a Tex-Mex restaurant at the south end, completes occupancy of the first phase at the Parkway Centre.

Publix was the first store to open, on Nov. 9, and also has been joined by Great Clips, Ichiban Grill, Nails by Chris and Petsense.

“There are over 200 employees in the center right now,” said Darrell Moore, president of the Moultrie-Colquitt County Development Authority. “(It’s) well over 200, easily.”

Moultrie and the county at large have a number of businesses that have been in business for years, but the new stores will expand shoppers’ choices, Moore said. They also will allow more opportunities for residents to shop local instead of heading to  Thomasville or Tallahassee.

That would keep more sales tax dollars in the community where it would provide additional revenue to the county, its municipalities and Colquitt County Schools.

“We just need to take the opportunity to shop there and at the other businesses we’ve had here in Moultrie,” Moore said.

Moore was not sure of the breakdown between full- and part-time jobs at the shopping center, but said they offer a cross-section of job opportunities.

“You’ve got some higher-paying jobs” for positions such as managers, assistant managers and section managers in the supermarket.

Other recent business openings include the Touchdown Sports Bar and Marco’s Pizza, both on First Avenue Southeast south of Veterans Parkway.

Marco’s has plans for expansion, Moore said. The pace of openings of new businesses has accelerated lately.

“We’d had 26 ribbon cuttings through March,” Moore said. “We’ve had seven this week. There’s a lot of new businesses (and) expansions, adding a few people (employees) here and there. Our unemployment rate continues to drop.”

Initial numbers for May put Colquitt County’s unemployment rate at 4.7 percent, according to the Georgia Department of Labor. That is slightly better than 4.8 percent in May 2016 and one-tenth of a percentage point up from 4.6 percent in April.

However, the number of employed people in the county actually increased by nearly 400, from 20,148 in April to 20,534 in May. The overall labor force also increased, from 21,129 in April to 21,536, indicating that more people may be reentering the labor market as more jobs are being created.

“I think we’ve got a lot of momentum right now,” Moore said.

Several manufacturers are hiring at the moment, he said, including Destiny Industries and National Beef. And the widening of Highway 133 from Moultrie to Valdosta, scheduled for completion next year, could be a major boon as it provides a four-lane connection to I-75 South.

Officials also hope that the new businesses will help boost the county’s sales tax revenues, which took a steep dive in recent years. Part of that may be explained by the loss of Moultrie’s Winn-Dixie store, Moore said.

For the first five months of the year the county’s 1 percent special purpose local option sales tax has brought in $2,269,141 in revenue, showing a slight increase from the $2,091,000 brought in through the same time period in 2016.

If the average monthly collections remain the same, 2017’s sales tax that benefits the county would total almost $5.45 million, compared with $5.17 million last year and $5.25 million in 2015. That money is not in the bank, however, as the monthly numbers can fluctuate significantly.

For 2017 the best month for collections so far has been January, at $500,021. In March $431,481 was collected.

In addition to the county, the Colquitt County School System receives two cents for every dollar spent here, so a boost in sales tax collections would have double the impact in terms of increasing revenues.

“I think it’s been very well received by the community,” Colquitt County Administrator Chas Cannon said of the new shopping center. “Obviously it worked out very well for the county. I think it’s been a positive.”

The shopping center is located outside the City of Moultrie on land purchased from Colquitt County Commission.

Thomasville development company Teramore paid the county $2.67 million — or $207,211 per acre — for the 12.88 acre parcel, and the county owns other nearby property in the fastest-growing corridor in the county.

A second company, Northlake, challenged the bidding process, taking the issue to Colquitt County Superior Court, where a judge issued a ruling rejecting a re-bid on the land and clearing the way for Publix to commit to the project.

“There have been some disagreements,” Cannon said. “We’re trying to work past that.”