Business Alabama has named Brewton’s Georgia Pacific’s as one the state’s top 18 economic coups of 2014.
GP — a major producer of building and paper products — is investing $375 million in the plant, which produces linerboard and cartonboard used in making boxes. The project involves modernizing the mill’s recovery boiler system. While the project doesn’t create new jobs, it will secure the existing 450 jobs at the mill. 
Construction started in July 2014 and is expected to be complete in 2016. The Georgia-Pacific Brewton LLC tax abatement was granted for $347.7 million for the energy improvement project.
During peak construction about 600 workers will be at the site, which Marshall Rogers, executive director of the Escambia County Industrial Development Authority, expects to have a multiplier effect on the area and boost the overall economy.
Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield confirmed it was another banner year for the state. From 2011 to 2013, economic development efforts in Alabama have resulted in more than 55,000 announced jobs and nearly $14 billion in capital investment, he said. 
“To put that into context, the three years prior to that, 2008 to 2010, brought 47,000 announced jobs and $8.6 billion in investment to Alabama,” he said.
From the world’s largest aerospace company and the world’s top-selling automaker to a company whose name is synonymous with firearms, businesses across sectors are setting up shop in Alabama or expanding their existing facilities.