Oct. 12 turned out to be a picture perfect day for the staff of Hydrema as the company held a groundbreaking ceremony at the future site of its new U.S. headquarters in Cumming, Ga. A great turnout of local dignitaries and representatives of the architects and subcontractors of this project turned out for the ceremony and an opportunity to welcome Hydrema to the location. Attendees got a feel for the project and had the opportunity to talk to the builders and Hydrema staffers and enjoy a nice lunch with them.

The facility will be built on a parcel of land that is approximately 4 acres at 4515 Hemingway Trail in Cumming, Ga. This is the first structure to be built in a proposed 150-acre business park. For maximizing exposure, the facility is being built to face the major thoroughfare of GA400/U.S.19 in Forsyth County, Ga. Only 10,000 yds. (9,144 m) of material need to be moved on site while the bulk of the digging will be done to create a temporary retention pond.

This first structure will be 13,000-plus sq. ft. (1,207 sq m) facility, which will be phase one of a planned two structure “campus.” Of the square footage, about 10,000 sq. ft. (929 sq m) will be designated as shop and warehouse space with the remainder to be utilized as a two-story office space area with mezzanine.

Rory Cunningham and the team of Cunningham & Associates based in Dawsonville, Ga., serve as the general contractor for the project. The official start of the structure was at the conclusion of the ground breaking ceremony and Cunningham said that he intends to have the structure ready to hand over the first of July for immediate move in. Cunningham will have about a dozen subs working on various phases of construction.

The project has been about a year in the planning stage. At this point, neither Hydrema nor the contractor have encountered any major hurdles or unforeseen challenges with construction of the new facility. Hydrema’s Kris Binder said, “we’ve been really quite happy working with Rory [Cunningham] on this project. Without his expertise we wouldn’t be here today.”

Hydrema U.S. will continue to operate from its Alpharetta, Ga., location until the time the new facility is ready for move in.

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