Georgia-Pacific to Bring $135M Plant to Peach State

By Barbra Murray

Georgia-Pacific is upgrading in the Peach State. The pulp and paper product manufacturer just revealed plans to replace its existing lumber mill in Warrenton, Ga., with a $135 million, state-of-the-art softwood lumber production facility. The new 340,000-square-foot plant will allow for the tripling of output at the site.

Located along Thomson Hwy., roughly 100 miles east of Atlanta and 50 miles west of Augusta, Georgia-Pacific’s plant in Warren County has been up and running since the 1970s. Now, those operations will move into the 21st Century. “We have enough property next to our existing mill in Warren County to build a larger facility equipped with the latest in lumber manufacturing technology,” Fritz Mason, vice president & general manager with Georgia‐Pacific Lumber, said in a prepared statement.

Georgia-Pacific’s standing Warrenton plant will continue production until the new facility, the construction of which is scheduled to commence in summer of 2018, reaches completion in spring 2019. There’s more than just high-tech operations involved in the project; the opening of the facility will result in the creation of up to 40 new jobs, bringing the total number of onsite employees to approximately 150.

Plant growth

The Warrenton project, one of 19 Georgia-Pacific facilities in the State of Georgia, is part of a 30-state portfolio that’s getting bigger and bigger. In September 2017, the company revealed it would shell out $100 million to erect a 300,000-square-foot facility on the site of its former plywood plant in Talladega, Ala. The project, which is expected to reach completion in late 2018, is one of several in Georgia-Pacific’s development pipeline.

“The demand for lumber continues to improve as the housing market recovers, so we continue to evaluate similar investments in several states across the country to serve our customers’ needs for lumber,” Mason said.

Image courtesy of Georgia-Pacific