![](\"http:\/\/z.about.com\/d\/gosoutheast\/1\/0\/D\/6\/-\/-\/The_Cloister.jpg\")
<\/a>\nWhat happens when you <\/a>\nWhat happens when you \nbuild an economy on real estate:<\/a>\n\nThe once-vaunted Sea Island Co. is awash in debt, badly behind on its loan payments and desperately trying to find a buyer for its five-star portfolio that once seemed immune to the economic whims that batter regular folk.\n\nThe company\u2019s downward spiral is a stunning tale of over-borrowing and over-expansion that collided with the worst recession since World War II, a downturn that has pummeled the luxury resort market across the nation.\n<\/blockquote>\nOK, so a big developer goes belly-up; who cares?\n\n\n
\nBut some of Sea Island\u2019s vast land holdings have already been split up, and the ripple effects of the company\u2019s downfall will be felt along the entire marsh-lined Georgia coast. The company still employs more than a thousand people, and the money it generates funds everyone from fishermen to florists in this resort-fueled economy.\n\n\u201cEveryone, whether you live in Brunswick or St. Simons or Jekyll Island, will feel the impact if we lose the Sea Island Co.,\u201d said state Rep. Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons). \u201cGlynn County without the Sea Island Co. is like Atlanta without the state Capitol. It\u2019s hard to imagine them not being there.\u201d\n<\/blockquote>\nThey may not be making any more of it, but its prices doesn’t always go up.\nAnd when it busts, everybody hurts.\n
\nIn 2008, just two years after Sea Island celebrated the Cloister reopening with a party that one guest described as something out of \u201cThe Great Gatsby,\u201d the company was in deep trouble. And the downward spiral was gaining speed.\n\nSea Island laid off 500 employees \u2014 about a quarter of its work force \u2014 in 2008 to stem the red ink. The next year the company received a record number of five-star awards from Mobil Travel Guide even as its finances tanked.\n<\/blockquote>\nThis wasn’t some obscure neighborhood resort. The G-8 met there in 2004.\n\nSea Island is the third richest ZIP code in the U.S., according to Forbes.<\/a>\n
\nOf course, nearby is Brunswick, Georgia’s most polluted city, and a poor one.\nMaybe at least one of the local developers’ schemes will be derailed,\nBlueprint Brunswick, which was to implement clearances of poor people:\n
\nMost homeowner occupied properties in the Corridor will not survive code enforcement and will be taken by condemnation and bundled for redevelopment. Those homeowners who pass inspection will be enticed to sell their properties (for \u201cfair market value,\u201d the value for the average home in the Corridor being identified in the Plan as $44K), on account of \u201cincompatibility\u201d with the Plan\u2019s \u201cvision\u201d for development.\n<\/blockquote>\nSome\n\n“revitalization” schemes continue as planned:<\/a.\n\n<\/a>\n
\nIn the photo at lower left, Gov. Sonny Perdue, center left, in green tie, and House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, center right, watch with shovels ready Monday as workers situate a palm tree into a hole to begin Great Dunes Park on Jekyll Island.\n\n\u201cThe revitalization of Jekyll Island has been discussed for many years, and I\u2019m excited that this day is finally here. This public- private partnership will result in a reinvigorated Jekyll Island that will attract more visitors who will appreciate the beauty and history of one of our state\u2019s crown jewels,\u201d Perdue said at the groundbreaking ceremony.\n<\/blockquote>\nThat was in December 2009.\n
\nGeorgia needs to do better than planting palm trees to pretend to be Florida.\nFlorida’s Ponzi scheme already went bust.\nDoes Georgia have to follow?\n
\nMaybe instead of investing in golf courses we could invest in off-shore\nwind farms, or wave power, or tide power.\nMaybe instead of palm trees, we could replant native forests for carbon sequestration.\nMaybe instead of becoming a tourist economy we could produce something,\nsuch as solar panels, wind turbines, or wave or tidal generators.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What happens when you build an economy on real estate: The once-vaunted Sea Island Co. is awash in debt, badly behind on its loan payments and desperately trying to find a buyer for its five-star portfolio that once seemed immune to the economic whims that batter regular folk. The company\u2019s downward spiral is a stunning […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,21,23,780,36],"tags":[242,5855,300,8701,5851,5852,5853,5854,8713,5850],"class_list":["post-2736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-planning","category-renewable-energy","category-travel","category-wind","tag-brunswick","tag-clearances","tag-development","tag-georgia","tag-jekyll","tag-jerry-keen","tag-ponzi-scheme","tag-reinvigoration","tag-renewable-energy","tag-sea-island"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-I8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}