Aspen Aerogels’ new Bulloch County factory, announced for construction one year ago this week, is taking shape at what is now the Bruce Yawn Commerce Park.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Feb. 17, 2022, announced that the corporation would build a $325 million plant in what was then called Southern Gateway Commerce Park, off U.S. Highway 301 at the I-16 interchange between Statesboro and Claxton. Company officials at the time projected the plant to be in operation by late 2023 and that it would create 250 advanced manufacturing jobs.
Aerial photographs taken from a drone, which Development Authority of Bulloch County CEO Benjy Thompson reports were produced by local photographer Frank Fortune about two weeks ago, show the construction progress to that point.
In the photos, one building with walls and a roof, as well as the steel framework of a larger building, stand above the clay of the 90-acre site. Some roofing or sub-roof materials have been installed on portions of the larger building’s frame. Several possibly temporary buildings and construction trailers can also be seen.
Phoned this week, Thompson said the project is moving forward, but he referred the Statesboro Herald’s request for an update, including whether the project remains on track for startup later this year, to Aspen Aerogels officials. They were busy Wednesday preparing for release of the publicly traded corporation’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 financial report, which was posted by the end of the business day, but have agreed to provide an update in the near future.
Like the Massachusetts-headquartered company’s existing plant in Rhode Island, the Aspen Aerogels plant here will produce aerogel insulation material, somewhat like wispy, very light but strong fiberglass.
One use for it, which Aspen particularly promotes for its trademarked PyroThin product line, is providing thermal runaway barriers, for fire prevention, between the cells of electric vehicle batteries.
Not tied to Hyundai
But Aspen’s announcement of the Bulloch County plant came before Kemp, in May, revealed Hyundai Motor Group’s big plans for an electric vehicle “Meta Plant” to be built at the Savanah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Mega Site in northern Bryan County.
Aspen Aerogels’ plans were not connected to Hyundai’s. But Aspen was the first of four industries, in a 12-month span, to commit to building plants in Bulloch County. So Aspen’s project is the only one actually under construction at this point.
Together, those four plants will eventually create more than 1,400 jobs, if all of the companies’ announced commitments are realized. The announced capital investments total $897 million.
The 3 other projects
· Ecoplastic America Corporation, a direct supplier of injection-molded plastic automotive body parts to Hyundai Motor Group, intends to build a $205 million plant, promised to create 456 jobs, with the investment and the job creation phased in over eight years, on a site owned by the Development Authority of Bulloch County, or DABC, south of Statesboro.
· Ajin USA, a supplier of metal auto body parts to Hyundai, has committed to invest $317 million and eventually employ 630 people at its Joon Georgia plant. The site is 83 acres, beside the Aspen Aerogels site and also in the Bruce Yawn Commerce Park.
· In a recently launched project, revalyu Resources, headquartered in Germany, intends to build a PET plastic-bottle recycling plant on a 43-acre site in Gateway Regional Industrial Park, which is on the other side of U.S. Highway 301 South and a little closer to Statesboro. It is expected to create 71 jobs and require a $50 million investment in Phase 1, the only phase counted in the current totals.