July 16, 2004
Fitzgerald- The $5 million, 250-acre Millennium Technology Pointe in Ben Hill County may be empty now, but by the first of the year it will have it's first occupant.
"We are very pleased with Aelera's announcement that they will have a location here," says Fitzgerald Mayor Gerald Thompson.
Aelera Corporation, a consulting and software development company announced plans to open a new outsourcing center in Fitzgerald, instead of like many companies sending those jobs overseas to India, China, or Armenia.
"They went off shore and looked every where to see if they could do it as good offshore, and they found out that they could do it in Georgia more economically than they could do it offshore," Thompson says.
Layouts of the technology park show enough room for Aelera along with 15 other tech-based companies.
"We're the only truly rural technology park that we're aware of. We have all of the infrastructure in place, redundant data connection, big band width," explains East Central Technical College, Executive Vice President Van Waters.
Waters is also excited about the announcement. The school is constructing a new $25 million Telecommunications Center, adding about 40% more space to their campus, and the ability to turn out more students.
"Many of our technology graduates don't have job opportunities in our area. So, we created Millennium Tech Pointe to provide those jobs."
The technology park also provides a place right next door to the college so graduates can work at home instead of flocking to metropolitan areas.
Aelera also plans to open a new software development center in Savannah on August 1st. 250 new jobs will be split between the Fitzgerald and Savannah sites.
Posted at 5:20 PM by elaine.armstrong@walb.com
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 Worldnow and WALB, a Raycom Media Station. 
