After a bouncing ride over the choppy seas of the recession and into a welcoming calm, economic developers in Macon-Bibb County can look back over the recent past to enjoy what 2013 brought them, and then peek ahead to a promising future forecast by the crystal ball gazers.
According to Georgia’s Office of Planning and Budget, the Macon-Bibb consolidated government’s five-county Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) will grow by 70,000 people by 2025, with Macon-Bibb and Houston County leading the population growth by adding 56,000 new citizens to their communities – good news for Macon-Bibb retailers and the economic developers who recruit them.
“I’m not going to say we turned the corner [on the recession],” says a cautious Pat Topping, senior vice president of the Macon Economic Development Commission (MEDC). “In 2013, we certainly had a good year in new business and business expansion, plus our activity level on projects is 30 percent above what it was in 2012.”