Partnership Habersham

10/27/2026

**10 years of partnership—and we’re just getting started!**

We celebrated a major milestone at the Partnership Habersham 10th Anniversary Investors Reception, reflecting on our first decade and looking ahead to what’s next.

A few highlights from the evening:

📖 Launching our new strategic plan
🛶 Taking a private tour of the ADA-accessible kayak launch at Tallulah Lake
🎓 Announcing the Tim Lee LEAD Scholarship, launching in 2027

A huge thank-you to Tallulah Adventures for hosting us, Brian Horton for the entertainment, and our investors and community partners for helping make the last ten years possible.

Our next chapter is focused on three priorities: supporting existing industry, workforce development, and recruiting new business. We’re excited to turn our strategic plan into action and continue building a stronger Habersham County together!

📸 See the evening’s highlights: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD8CoY

10/21/2026

Happy Support your Chamber of Commerce Day to ! We appreciate all that you do for our business community!

10/16/2026

Tourism Makes an Impact in Habersham County!

Tourism is more than a great reason to explore our mountains, enjoy local attractions, and shop and dine in our communities. It’s also an important contributor to our local economy.

According to the 2025 Explore Georgia Tourism Impact Study, Habersham County generated $79.9 million in total visitor spending-related business sales in 2025 — a 14.9% increase from 2024! 📈

From Georgia's highest elevation vineyard to history museums, music festivals to a phenomenal community theater, Habersham's assets meet any tourists needs, and that tourism helps strengthen our community.

📊 Want to learn more? We’ve added the Explore Georgia Tourism Impact Study to the data section of our website.

🔗 Explore the data: https://www.partnershiphabershamga.com/data

10/14/2026

We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our leaders within our manufacturing community.

A man who took pride in bringing what Habersham makes all over the world is gone.

Read more in your copy of the Midweek edition. Subscribers can read more online: https://www.thenortheastgeorgian.com/local-news-newsletter-1/business-community-leader-mauney-passes

10/14/2026

🍎 Georgia has a 5,200 pound apple, and it has stood in a small mountain town for about a century.

In downtown Cornelia, in Habersham County, the Big Red Apple is a steel and concrete monument about seven feet high with a 22-foot circumference, set on a concrete pedestal roughly eight feet tall. The state's tourism site says it was molded in Wi******er, Virginia, in 1925, donated by Southern Railway, and shipped to town by train. It was dedicated in 1926.

Why an apple? The monument honors the apple growers and the years when apples were a serious part of the economy in Cornelia and Habersham County, as north Georgia farmers looked for crops beyond cotton. The Georgia Encyclopedia lists it as built in 1925 and notes it carries the words "Home of the Big Red Apple." It still stands beside the old railroad depot, and the town still holds apple festivals.

Cornelia itself began as a railroad settlement called Blaine in the early 1870s and was incorporated as Cornelia in 1887.

Have you ever stopped to see the Big Red Apple, and did you know it weighs more than two and a half tons?

Photo: Thomson200, CC0, 2015.

10/02/2026

At Partnership Habersham, we’re proud to work alongside our manufacturers to support existing industry, strengthen our workforce, and create opportunities for future growth. This Manufacturing Week, join us in recognizing the people and companies that make it happen right here in Habersham County. Our manufacturers range from food to construction materials production, offering a diversity of career opportunities. From sutures, to the buttons on your jeans, the windows on your home, to the warm candle burning on your coffee table, our manufacturers play a significant role in everyday life through their products.

Happy Manufacturing Week!

09/25/2026

At our September Investor Meeting, we were joined by Megan Conville, Principal Analyst with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA), for a presentation on housing data and what public data tells us about housing needs across Georgia’s regions. The presentation highlighted DCA’s statewide Housing Needs Assessments, developed to help local decision-makers better understand current housing needs by geography, tenure, and housing type.

🏠 4 Big Takeaways

1. Housing needs to be considered across the entire housing spectrum.
DCA’s assessment looks at both homeownership and rental housing, providing a broader picture of the types of housing communities need.

2. Housing affordability is connected to the local workforce.
The presentation used examples of workers in Habersham County—including a waitress earning $10/hour, an auto mechanic earning $18/hour, and a truck driver earning $28/hour—to illustrate how different income levels intersect with housing affordability.

3. Northeast Georgia has a measurable housing development need.
For the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission region, DCA identified an initial development need of 3,802 rental homes and 5,170 homeowner homes. Together, that represents a total development need equal to 4.6% of the region's available housing stock.

4. Data can help communities make better-informed housing decisions.
DCA developed its Housing Needs Assessments specifically to equip local decision-makers with data and created a Housing Development Need Dashboard where communities can explore the information.

09/17/2026

Join us next week at the September Investor’s meeting next week. We will hear an important housing update from the Department of Community affairs. We hope to see you there!

09/03/2026

Join Partnership Habersham for our September Investor Meeting on Wednesday, September 23rd, as we hear a Habersham County Housing Update from the Department of Community Affairs.

We hope to see you there! Networking & Breakfast at 7:30 a.m., with the Program beginning at 8 a.m.

06/12/2026

Please join us in welcoming Emily Jo Page to the Partnership Habersham and Habersham County Chamber of Commerce team as our new Marketing and Administrative Assistant!

A proud Habersham County native, Emily Jo recently made the transition from the insurance industry to a role where she can serve and support the community she loves. After graduating from the University of Georgia, she returned home with her husband and is now raising their young son right here in Habersham County.

We're excited to have someone with such deep roots and a genuine passion for our community join our team. Welcome, Emily Jo—we're glad you're here!