Kings Bay Research Campus

5954 Union Carbide Rd | Woodbine, GA 31569 | Camden County

The Camden site is a rare and unique former industrial site that currently includes approximately 850 upland acres of razed building foundations, a landfill, and roadway and utility infrastructure with upland areas consisting of young re-generated pine, areas of hardwood dominated freshwater wetlands and large areas of coastal salt marsh including significant frontage and a dock area on Floyd Creek, a tidal tributary to the Cumberland River. Given its size and water access, proximity to federal operations and potential value to DoD and DoD contractors, the site is a rare situation along the US east coast, where many coastal areas have extremely high value for residential or other commercial, are already developed, or lack the combination of road, utilities, and water access with the quantity of buffer and potential for secured activities.

Due to its former land use by Bayer Chemical and others, the site was assumed to be highly contaminated and in need of extensive remediation activities. According to testing results (ASTM Phase II) by others, the site presents levels of soil and groundwater contamination that do not require remediation (as indicated by United Consulting) for it to be reused as an industrial or commercial facility. This could be one of the largest brownfield redevelopments on the east coast, reusing formerly industrial areas for new industrial or commercial land use coupled with potential for expansive conservation of natural resources.

Given the site’s situation on Floyd Creek and existing dock area on Horsepen Bluff with water depth of approximately 20’ at the dock, large areas of developable uplands, secured perimeter, existing road access and utilities, the Camden site is likely a favorable parcel for development either by the Navy due to proximity to Kings Bay submarine base, or private entities that service the Navy or others that require a large, secured site for their operations with its associated features.

The natural resources on the parcel including early and secondary successional pines, freshwater wetlands and over 6,900 acres of salt marsh, tidal creeks and salt marsh buffers present significant opportunities for conservation and preservation and ecological studies as well as high quality habitat for coastal species including bald eagle, a variety of shore and wetland bird species, neotropical migratory birds, dolphins and manatees in the creek systems and many other species that benefit from large swaths of salt marsh systems with little human impacts or presence. 

Development of the usable upland areas coupled with preservation of freshwater wetlands, marsh buffers and salt marsh systems could present a unique opportunity for the right entity to establish business operations while managing the natural resources for ecological function and potentially ecological lift of the systems if aquatic restoration activities are implemented. 

The site has potential for preservation and conservation of large areas of the salt marsh areas and possibly restoration of freshwater wetlands and could be a candidate for wetlands mitigation credit generation to offset wetland impacts in the general area by others. This could be a revenue stream for the owner and would require conservation easement of the wetlands and buffers. In addition, the salt marsh, buffers, and forested areas could be incorporated into an owner’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) for their ecosystem services values including potential for carbon offsetting and other ESG metrics.

 

 

 

 

Interested in learning more about this rare and unique investment opportunity?