Bryan and Chatham counties will split the first “leasehold ad valorem property tax payment” from Hyundai, and Bryan County will get more than half the annual payment from 2031 until 2048, according to a revenue sharing agreement between the four counties that make up the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Joint Development Authority.
The payments from Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America to local governments are scheduled to begin in 2026 after initial construction is complete on the electric vehicle plant at the 2,967acre Bryan County Mega-Site, according to a summary of the incentive agreement between HMGMA and the JDA.
Incentives to bring Hyundai to the Mega-Site reportedly totaled more than $1 billion, but the automaker is investing an estimated $5.45 billion to build its first electric vehicle manufacturing facility in the U.S. in Black Creek, and batteries to power the vehicles will also be built at a separate facility at the Mega- Site. That investment is said to be roughly $1 billion.
That first payment to the JDA member is estimated to be $12.696 million and it will increase over time to as much as $23 million by 2046, the JDA said. The joint authority expects Hyundai will pay more than $357 million to local governments over the 26-year agreement.
In the near future, Bryan and Chatham will split the initial payment in half. Neither Bulloch nor Effingham counties will receive a payout the first year.
That’s apparently because Bryan and Chatham counties have more to recoup, since the two are spending the most on the project – Bryan has or will invest more than $19.6 million, Chatham $17.1 million – officials say, while Bulloch and Effingham counties have spent or will spend some $8.1 million each on the project. While neither will get anything in Phase I, and Bulloch won’t get anything in Phase II in 2027, the revenue sharing agreement details how Hyundai’s annual leasehold payment will be shared through 2048.
For example, in 2027 Bryan County’s share will of the leasehold payment be 36.04 percent. Effingham will get 44.89 percent and Chatham 22.07 percent. In 2028, Bryan County will get 30.32 percent, Bulloch will get 23.14 percent, Chatham County will get 23.14 percent, and Effingham County will receive 23.40 percent.
Bryan County’s share in 2029 will be 32.47 percent. In 2030, it will be 41.72 percent, and the county will get 58 percent from 2031 until 2048. Under the agreement, Hyundai will pay 100 percent of the taxes on the Mega-Site after the abatement period ends in 2048. The agreement spells out in detail how the site will be appraised – Bryan County’s Board of Tax Assessors – when payments will be due, and how the amount will be applied to each county’s tax digest.
It also leaves room for amendments should the need arise.
Bulloch County to put moratorium on rezoning
By Al Hackle, Statesboro Herald.
With Hyundai Motor Group’s plans for an 8,100-employee factory just across the county line accelerating demand for housing in the region, the Bulloch County commissioners unanimously approved a 180-day moratorium Tuesday on site-specific rezoning or new subdivisions in the southeastern part of Bulloch County.
County staff members, who intend to spend those six months revising the county’s comprehensive plan and zoning rules, also propose using county-operated water and sewer systems as a lure to concentrate some of the residential growth. Bulloch County was already expected to assist in providing a water supply to the huge electric vehicle and battery manufacturing plant planned for the 2,964-acre Mega Site in the Black Creek area of northern Bryan County, since the state purchased the site in partnership with the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority, or JDA, of which Chatham, Bryan, Bulloch and Effingham counties are members.
Meanwhile, Bryan County is expected to build a wastewater treatment system serving the plant. The Bulloch County government operates no “wet” utilities at this point. But water and sewer service to potential residential areas in the southeastern-most portion of Bulloch would be provided by expanding on the two counties’ infrastructure plans for serving the manufacturing plant itself, according to County Manager Tom Couch.