MOULTRIE – Moultrie-Colquitt County Development Authority President Amy Johnson gave updates to both the County Commission and the Development Authority last week on the progress of the Moultrie Exchange project.

Through an inter-governmental agreement, Colquitt County, the City of Moultrie and the Moultrie-Colquitt County Development Authority are partially funding the Moultrie Exchange, a commercial development project on Veterans Parkway. The government money helps close a funding gap for the developers.

Hobby Lobby, Marshall’s and Five Below are in construction now. The site is located north of Lowe’s Home Improvement Store and east of Harbor Freight.

At the commission meeting, Johnson said she was out with the developers the previous day. She brought slides of the progress at the construction site, pointing out which building was which store.

“There’s gonna be a little over 300 parking spaces in there and they are on-track to open in the fall,” she said.

She said she asked them about jobs and they will let her know when they’re going to start hiring.

She also told the members of the Development Authority at their meeting that the Moultrie Exchange was on schedule.

“Their Hobby Lobby, they did have to go back and make a few changes on the layout on how they started but still on schedule. They’re looking at opening during the fall, so that’s going well,” Johnson said.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the commercial development project in December of last year.

“We are so proud to finally be at this moment where we can break ground on what’s the first large project we’ve had as the Moultrie-Colquitt Development Authority in nearly six years,” Moultrie-Colquitt County Development Authority Chairman Ross Dekle said at the time.

He also said that they went into the project with the greatest concern for being good stewards of tax dollars and good stewards of the community. He said the project will generate millions of dollars in property and sales tax each year. The taxes go to the city, the county and the schools to benefit the community for years to come.