Camden County pitches 500‑acre Georgia‑Florida Sports Park to capture tourist spending and hotel room nights

Camden County officials on the state capitol’s “lunch‑and‑learn” panel outlined plans for the Georgia‑Florida Sports Park, a roughly 500‑acre sports tourism complex near Exits 1 and 3 on I‑95 they said is designed to draw out‑of‑state visitors and increase hotel room nights, retail sales and local jobs.

James Coughlin, head of the Camden County Joint Development Authority, told the legislative committee the project is a public‑private effort sited near Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base and “will draw out of state visitors to Camden.” He said the county will ask voters to approve a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendum on March 18 to fund the park’s backbone infrastructure — water, sewer, a spine road and storm drainage — and that the city of Kingsland has adopted a Tax Allocation District (TAD) with the county and school board agreeing to participate to help build playing fields.

The nut graf: Project backers said sports tourism produces sustained multi‑day stays and ancillary spending that can broaden Camden’s primarily residential tax base. Proponents argued the complex would convert transient I‑95 traffic into destination visitors, keep retail and lodging dollars in Georgia rather than flowing to Florida, and catalyze private investment in hotels, restaurants and retail surrounding the park.

Project details and financing

Coughlin and Bill Gross of WH Gross Construction described the site as about 500 acres and said the park will include rectangular multipurpose fields, diamonds, a championship “Showcase Stadium,” an indoor arena suitable for cheerleading, gymnastics and volleyball, tennis courts and an RV park. Gross said consultants recommended artificial turf for the fields to allow multiple plays during rainy seasons. Oak View Group conducted the feasibility work, according to the presenters; the effort was previously reviewed before COVID under the Georgia Tourism Development Act and will need updated consideration given changes to the plan.

Coughlin said Exit 3 currently has about 1,400 hotel rooms and that the county seeks to add newer generation properties and attract room nights that now go to nearby Florida destinations. He said Camden’s tax digest is “over 70%” residential and that the county expects between 8,000 and 10,000 new residential units to come online in the next two years, which heightens the need to grow the commercial tax base.

Local roles and private management

Presenters said the park would be publicly owned but privately managed. Backers named Greenstone Properties and Oak View Group as private partners; Greenstone has experience with sports facility development and ownership, and Oak View Group is a global facility manager that, presenters said, manages other major venues in Georgia. Developers would be responsible for access roads to private pads; the SPLOST and the TAD were described as the public incentives to make the catalyst infrastructure feasible.

Economic rationale and market demand

Coughlin and supporters cited sports tourism growth data and a USAToday study (as described in the presentation) that they say shows families involved in travel sports are likely to convert paid vacation time to travel‑sports weekends. They emphasized girls’ sports as a particular draw because families tend to travel together for those events, increasing lodging and retail spending. Presenters also noted the potential to “bookend” tournaments by encouraging visitors to arrive early or stay later to visit regional attractions such as the Okefenokee Swamp and Cumberland Island National Seashore.

Outstanding questions and approvals

Speakers said the project previously had preapproval under the Georgia Tourism Development Act before COVID but must re‑engage that process because the plan has changed. The presenters described the TAD as already adopted by Kingsland, with county and school board participation confirmed; they said private developers would build hotels and retail around the publicly financed infrastructure. No formal vote or legislative action occurred at the lunch meeting.

Why this matters

Backers say the park could redirect hundreds of thousands of visitor‑days to Camden County each year and support new business development, hotel construction and employment tied to sports tourism. Opponents or fiscal critics were not recorded in this session; presenters acknowledged remaining steps including voter approval of the March 18 SPLOST referendum, updated tourism‑act review and private developer commitments before construction could begin.

Ending

Presenters asked the legislature to view the project as an example of how public infrastructure tools — SPLOST, TADs and state tourism incentives — can be combined with private management to expand regional tourism and commercial tax bases. Committee members and several attendees voiced support during the session, and no formal motions or votes were taken at the meeting.