THOMASVILLE — Thomas County’s Red Hills Business Park has drawn international interest via Vegas.

Shelley Zorn, Thomasville Payroll Development Authority (PDA) executive director, met Turkish safe manufacturers at a recent trade show in Las Vegas.

Zorn told the PDA Monday the safe company makes high-end, bullet-proof safes that have glass fronts. The safes cost as much as $25,000 each, Zorn said.

Safe company officials will visit the business park in March.

Zorn said six local inquiries have been made recently about the U.S. 19 North business park.

In addition to the Turkish company, a South Florida manufacturer of wooden roof and floor trusses is interested in a park location.

The company is looking at Thomasville and Bainbridge and the Florida Panhandle as a site to open a second site. Zorn thinks the business will make a decision between Thomasville and Bainbridge this week, narrowing the potential sites to a Georgia city and the Panhandle.

The company employees 280 at the Florida plant. If the business locates here, it would employ 100 in the beginning, with 95 percent of hires being local.

The business would have an annual $2.5 million payroll and invest $15 million in a business park facility.

Zorn visited the company’s South Florida factory, which she described as high-tech, computerized and employing millennials.

The company would want 50 acres in the business park, with an option on 30 additional acres.

Zorn said the company’s products will be used in a large housing subdivision to be built near Panama City, Florida, and a location near wood suppliers is desired, she said.

Mark NeSmith, the PDA co-chairman, questioned the company’s use of utilities.

“I think that’s another key we need to keep in mind,” NeSmith told fellow PDA members. 

 

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820