VALDOSTA — Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority announced Better Way Products will be coming to the Azalea City Industrial Park.

Better Way Products is a manufacturer of fiberglass marine equipment, said Andrea Schruijer, executive director of the development authority.

The company will create an estimated 86 new jobs within three years and an initial capital investment of $750,000 in equipment and personal property, she said. By April 1, Better Way Products is expected to hire 30 individuals.

The Development Authority approved up to $50,000 worth of incentives to encourage Better Way Products to reach its estimated 86 employees within three years, officials said during an authority meeting Tuesday. 

The incentives will be given to the company through a performance-based grant that will award the company $1,000 per job created in 2019, $500 per job in the next two years for the next 40 jobs created.

The Department of Labor will host a job fair 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday, March 21. The job fair is open to the public, and Better Way Products will be in attendance.

Along with approving incentives for Better Way Products, the authority approved moving forward with creating a speculative building. The building is expected to take nine months to construct and will go through a bidding process.

In other business, the authority approved a speculative building for the Westside Business Park. The building will have a dirt floor so when a business moves in, the building can be constructed to the new tenant’s specifications.

“We have lost some projects based on the availability of buildings,” Schruijer said.

One of the projects the authority lost was originally looking for a green space to build on, but ran out of time, she said. Because Valdosta didn’t have available buildings, the project moved to another location.

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority meets 5:30 p.m., the third Tuesday of every month.