MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — For decades the Central State Hospital campus in Milledgeville employed thousands of employees and pumped money into the local economy.
Then, when mental health treatment changed in the 1970's, the hospital lost steam and jobs with it. Now, the local redevelopment authority is trying to return the campus to some form of its former glory.
Drive through the Central State Hospital Campus and you will recognize it is not nearly what it use to be.
Mike Couch, the director of the CSH Local Redevelopment Authority, remembers playing in the grove there as a boy.
"Going back to '67 there were 8,000 employees out here. We will never replace 8,000 employees on the campus," Couch said.
It is the authority's job to bring infrastructure back to the space that used to house one of the county's biggest employers.
"Those days are gone. So what you have left is some good real estate, some bad real estate with tremendous opportunity and a community that needs jobs," Couch said.
The hospital authority started in 2012. In its seven years, it has taken a $2.1 million investment from Milledgeville and Baldwin County and turned it into $126 million in development.
Couch and company pulled in big businesses like Correctlife, which built the $23 million Bostick Nursing Facility that employs 220 people and looking to add more
Another $17 million and 300-plus jobs will come in the form of a Georgia International Food Center.
The center will house three different companies and remodel the 108,000 square foot Parham Kitchen to USDA standards.
While a few big businesses have taken the bait, the authority has attracted 26 small businesses to work on the complex as well. For instance, city councilman Walter Reynold's remodeling of the Church of All Faiths for an event center, The Grove.
"As the state was the big dog in 1968. We want a bunch of dogs out here right now. We want a bunch of small companies that are apart of the partnership out here," Couch said.
The authority faces a unique obstacle in respecting the history of what the hospital represented. In re-branding, they are trying to give new life to the long dormant campus.
"The state hospital is always going to be a part of the history of the community, but we gotta look at how do we bring economics back to the community while being respectful of people that worked here," Couch said.
He said he knows his team is on the right track.
"If 10 or 12 years from now there's 5,000 jobs out here or 4,000, the buildings are filled, we're respecting the history of this place, we're doing what we should be doing," he said.