Could Columbus survive Fort Benning cuts? (Savannah, Gordon: 2015, condominium, hotels)
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As everyone here knows, Fort Benning is a huge contributor to the local economy and brings thousands of people to the area. In the summer of this year, it was announced that the army would be cutting about 11,000 soldiers and civilian jobs by 2020. With this, they are expecting more than 27,000 people to leave the area. This would mean cutting more than $1 billion dollars a year in income, sales, and taxes in the area. It would be minus $627 million in income alone. Now the army is saying that it is not a matter of if, but when. That would definitely be a hard hit for the economy of Columbus, and I don't know if Columbus would be able to survive such a massive blow. I would be less worried if Columbus was a more urban area that had enough business and other industry growth to counteract the cuts and balance things out, but sadly, that its not the case. Columbus is very dependent of Fort Benning, so I would imagine that this would be catastrophic to the local economy.
As everyone here knows, Fort Benning is a huge contributor to the local economy and brings thousands of people to the area. In the summer of this year, it was announced that the army would be cutting about 11,000 soldiers and civilian jobs by 2020. With this, they are expecting more than 27,000 people to leave the area. This would mean cutting more than $1 billion dollars a year in income, sales, and taxes in the area. It would be minus $627 million in income alone. Now the army is saying that it is not a matter of if, but when. That would definitely be a hard hit for the economy of Columbus, and I don't know if Columbus would be able to survive such a massive blow. I would be less worried if Columbus was a more urban area that had enough business and other industry growth to counteract the cuts and balance things out, but sadly, that its not the case. Columbus is very dependent of Fort Benning, so I would imagine that this would be catastrophic to the local economy.
I hear what your are saying and it would be a little of a blow to the columbus area when fort benning does the job cuts but hey if the job cuts have to be made they have to be made. But I think columbus will be alright and will thrive your forgetting columbus is home to a few 500 fortune companies and also columbus now has whiterwater downtown that will bring millions of visitors to the city. Columbus ga is starting to improve the area and moving in a more positive direction. We just need more hotels downtown to support the growth of the whitewater because whitewater visitors are going to want more hotel options. I agree that columbus needs more industry growth but why columbus lacks this is because we don't have full interstate access.
Last edited by columbusmetro89; 12-22-2014 at 12:10 PM..
Peachtree
Is there an online news source you can direct us to that confirms this news as a certainty or even as being further along than just the originally announced conjecture?
I know that some other military dependent cities are holding their collective breaths in advance of such final decisions.
Peachtree
Is there an online news source you can direct us to that confirms this news as a certainty or even as being further along than just the originally announced conjecture?
I know that some other military dependent cities are holding their collective breaths in advance of such final decisions.
I don't think that the cuts are final yet, but I know that the army is supposed to be having a listening session here is February, and well as the other 29 installations that are called to face significant cuts, so I would assume that the process is farther along than before. I know that other Georgia forts like Gordon and Stewart are also being considered for cuts, but Stewart's cuts wouldn't have as much of direct effect on Savannah and Gordon's small amount of cuts are being counteracted by Cyber Command growth,so it seems that the cuts would have the largest affect on Columbus. That's why I was concerned. I'm just trying to prepare for the worst.
As everyone here knows, Fort Benning is a huge contributor to the local economy and brings thousands of people to the area. In the summer of this year, it was announced that the army would be cutting about 11,000 soldiers and civilian jobs by 2020. With this, they are expecting more than 27,000 people to leave the area. This would mean cutting more than $1 billion dollars a year in income, sales, and taxes in the area. It would be minus $627 million in income alone. Now the army is saying that it is not a matter of if, but when. That would definitely be a hard hit for the economy of Columbus, and I don't know if Columbus would be able to survive such a massive blow. I would be less worried if Columbus was a more urban area that had enough business and other industry growth to counteract the cuts and balance things out, but sadly, that its not the case. Columbus is very dependent of Fort Benning, so I would imagine that this would be catastrophic to the local economy.
You definitely a valid reason to be concerned. Other than loosing money in the area, the cuts would likely result in a smaller sized city and some businesses moving elsewhere. While loosing more 1$ billion dollars in money would be a big deal for any city the size of Columbus, it wouldn't be a disaster of epic proportions. It wouldn't spell doom for Columbus, but it would spell a sizable setback. Although Columbus is a military town, it has other things going for it, such as its corporate base. Its also a good thing that the cuts will probably little-by-little, year-by-year, so that the city could slowly adjust to a smaller population, rather than cutting all of the jobs within one year. That would make matters even worse if that were to happen. While Columbus may end up downsizing by a good bit, it will survive.
You definitely a valid reason to be concerned. Other than loosing money in the area, the cuts would likely result in a smaller sized city and some businesses moving elsewhere. While loosing more 1$ billion dollars in money would be a big deal for any city the size of Columbus, it wouldn't be a disaster of epic proportions. It wouldn't spell doom for Columbus, but it would spell a sizable setback. Although Columbus is a military town, it has other things going for it, such as its corporate base. Its also a good thing that the cuts will probably little-by-little, year-by-year, so that the city could slowly adjust to a smaller population, rather than cutting all of the jobs within one year. That would make matters even worse if that were to happen. While Columbus may end up downsizing by a good bit, it will survive.
Columbus will survive the city has always been strong with growth and we have a great city government.And the whitewater rafting attraction will bring more people to our area regardless. Columbus can thrive on it's own. Columbus needs to hurry up and get a private developer in here to start building nice hotels downtown to support the whitewater rafting so we can keep the whitewater visitors in town to stay in our hotels and shop in our city.
People, don't kid yourself - two things are inevitable - the Military as a whole will have to downsized in the the next decade and probably again in the next 2. And it will hurt a lot, but not cripple Columbus.
Whitewater won't bring "millions", despite it's growth, their is a finite number of rafters we can handle. What I'd like to see are more attractions or some other ways to incorporate Columbus to the area. Boating down the hooch, or some sort of high speed rail between here in ATL. Columbus has got to develop a more regional connectivity. Business Growth has got to keep progressing as well.
Personally, as modern warfare advances, I would think they'd consolidate little bases into larger ones - would certainly help logistics.
People, don't kid yourself - two things are inevitable - the Military as a whole will have to downsized in the the next decade and probably again in the next 2. And it will hurt a lot, but not cripple Columbus.
Whitewater won't bring "millions", despite it's growth, their is a finite number of rafters we can handle. What I'd like to see are more attractions or some other ways to incorporate Columbus to the area. Boating down the hooch, or some sort of high speed rail between here in ATL. Columbus has got to develop a more regional connectivity. Business Growth has got to keep progressing as well.
Personally, as modern warfare advances, I would think they'd consolidate little bases into larger ones - would certainly help logistics.
Excuse me think again Whitewater would bring millions if columbus would bring in private developers and have them build nice hotels downtown on the riverfront this would bring in extra revenue for the city and the whitewater tourist would also stay here and shop too bringing extra money. Now boating down the hooch sounds good too for an extra attraction I remember we had something like that years ago. I wonder what happen to it I think columbus should consider bringing back this boating hooch thing. But as far as columbus skyline goes I wonder if downtown will ever have a more interesting skyline though. I know phenix city alabama side of the river will have a skyline especially if the brickyard condominium project happens plans call for several 13 story condo towers on the phenix city side. Columbus has not done a upper scale project like this yet on the riverfront. As far as industry job plants go you can forget that because columbus lacks full interstate access because if that is then why did kia build their plant in west point off of I85 because it's a highly more traveled interstate compared to I185. All I185 was designed for was to serve fort benning. There's two most important things columbus needs right now that is the proposed I14 interstate threw the area and the highspeed rail then this area would take off with industry jobs and growth.
Last edited by columbusmetro89; 12-22-2014 at 06:52 PM..
Excuse me think again Whitewater would bring millions if columbus would bring in private developers and have them build nice hotels downtown on the riverfront this would bring in extra revenue for the city and the whitewater tourist would also stay here and shop too bringing extra money. Now boating down the hooch sounds good too for an extra attraction I remember we had something like that years ago. I wonder what happen to it I think columbus should consider bringing back this boating hooch thing. But as far as columbus skyline goes I wonder if downtown will ever have a more interesting skyline though. I know phenix city alabama side of the river will have a skyline especially if the brickyard condominium project happens plans call for several 13 story condo towers on the phenix city side. Columbus has not done a upper scale project like this yet on the riverfront. As far as industry job plants go you can forget that because columbus lacks full interstate access because if that is then why did kia build their plant in west point off of I85 because it's a highly more traveled interstate compared to I185. All I185 was designed for was to serve fort benning. There's two most important things columbus needs right now that is the proposed I14 interstate threw the area and the highspeed rail then this area would take off with industry jobs and growth.
So, your assumption is based off of ifs, unlike OldRiverRd. No matter what you think might happen in the future, the fact is, as of now, whitewater does not bring millions to the area. I don't foresee that happening between 2015-2020 either. Not that developers were fighting for land in Columbus before, but if this is finalized, it would drive them to other cities even faster. Just think about the probability of a private developer building nice riverfront hotels in Columbus in the near future. Its not that great of a chance that will happen. I love your optimism, but sometimes, you have to look at things the way they really are. Developers look at things such as local market demand,disposable income, population growth and forecast growth, and market growth rates. The point is, if an area was possibly about to loose nearly 30,000 people, 11,000 jobs, and over $1 billion dollars in income, sales, and taxes by 2020, would you invest in it? I 'm not trying to bash Columbus or anything, but you guys really need to look at this situation realistically. This will have a large effect on Columbus, and Columbus doesn't really have a rapidly growing industry to offset the loss of jobs and population. Columbus should be prepared for the worst.
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