Business is booming in East Ellijay, where commercial activity includes new stores and restaurants recently opening or planning to soon.
The city has seen an uptick in new business construction over the past couple of years, according to the East Ellijay city planning office.
“A lot of the projects we’re seeing now have been on the drawing board for a long time, but it seems like they’ve come off the paper onto the ground at the same time,” said Public Safety Director Larry Callahan, who handles code enforcement and permitting.
New openings include several national or regional chains including Mavis Tires and Brakes and restaurants Bojangles and Buffalo Luke’s. Callahan said restaurants are facing the same obstacle here as they are nationwide — securing the staff needed to open.
“Almost across the board what we’re hearing is that it’s extremely hard now to get good, qualified help and people that will stay. I know that’s not isolated to us. Everybody everywhere is feeling that, not just in the food industry,” he added.
Much of East Ellijay’s new commercial construction, including the two aforementioned restaurants, is in the Highlands shopping area. But the Old Orchard Square (Ingle’s) shopping center is also seeing some new activity.
Five Below, a discount retail chain, has confirmed it will put a store in the shopping center, which is expected to open this summer. The retail chain specializes in a variety of items priced between $1 and $5.
In the same shopping center, it’s also been announced that Marshall’s, a national discount clothing and department store, has leased the space formerly used by Black Bear Antiques. According to planning and zoning, Marshall’s has not filed an application with East Ellijay yet, but a recent press release did confirm its lease for the Halpern Enterprises-owned retail space.
In the Highlands shopping area, a Marriott Springhill Suites Hotel is still under construction, while construction of an Aldi supermarket and grading for Piedmont Healthcare’s two-story medical office complex and ER continue across the highway.
“We’re starting to see a lot of older commercial land that’s been vacant for a good while start to get some interest, so I think we’re going to continue to see (more commercial) development,” Callahan said.
Other East Ellijay commercial construction includes a new Waffle House, which will be built near the Marriott, and a veterinary clinic, Wayside Animal Hospital, which is going up near the former location of South State Bank.
“It does seem like we’ve got a tremendous amount of (commercial) building going on, but I don’t know if it’s just us or it’s that everybody up and down 515 is seeing the same thing,” said Callahan. “We try to be builder friendly, and we’ve always tried to keep our commercial (areas) commercial. We don’t see a lot of rezoning of our commercial areas. We also don’t collect city property taxes, so that does give us an opportunity to attract some of these businesses. And, geographically, we’re just in a good location.”