ATLANTA-Last summer, industrial developer IDI (Industrial Developments International), based here, finished a $9 million infrastructure improvement program at a 260-acre site it had purchased from the Monroe County Georgia development authority for $6.5 million. After spending all that money to attract companies in need of large warehouse space, one would think that IDI's marketing program would be equally as rigorous. That is where the Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development Sites Program comes in.

At the Meridian 75 Logistics Center, 15 miles north of Macon, IDI is planning to build up to 2.9 million square feet, but in order to attract tenants in need of one million square foot facilities, it sought out the seal of approval with the help of Georgia Allies, a public/private entity which administers the GRAD program. Georgia Allies' larger mission is to promote business in the state.

The GRAD designation indicates that a development site has been pre-qualified and approved for development by a third party consultant who works with the Georgia Allies program, says Lisa Ward, vice president of leasing for IDI in Atlanta. Until recently, only seven sites in the state had been approved to receive this designation, including IDI’s Tradeport East Business Center in Savannah. As of March 31, 2010, IDI’s Meridian 75 Logistics Center has joined that list of projects.

The third-party seal of approval is important, says Ward, "because it says that we’ve had a professional engineer review our documents. Sometimes, after a big company signs a lease, it still takes two years before its employees can move into the building,” she says. The GRAD program is designed to prevent that kind of lag time. Currently, IDI has 25% of the available GRAD acreage in the state of Georgia, says Ward.

“Even before the economy started to deteriorate, large companies were consolidating their operations into large distributions centers,” says Ward. That is why she thinks it is realistic to expect to find multiple tenants needing one-million square feet. Still, at this point, there are no takers for the center.

The IDI Meridian 75 Logistics Center is 200 miles from the port of Savannah, a selling point for businesses engaged in international trade, says Ward. In addition, the location allows tenants to reach about 70 million people in the US by truck within a day's travel, so this makes for a good distribution location.”

At IDI’s Meridian 75 Logistics Center, there is a foreign trade zone, which gives the site more viability as a distribution or manufacturing location, says Ward. Although IDI has no tenants, at this point for the Meridian 75 Logistics Center, “When the economy comes back, we will be well positioned to attract large users," she says.