Update Nov. 15, 2025, 5:22 p.m.: This story has been updated to reflect the bankruptcy judge’s approval of the sale of the Gilman Paper site.
A judge has blessed an Atlanta developer’s plan to sell the bankrupt company that owns St. Marys’ Gilman Paper site, after an early investor withdrew objections.
Edward Ginn III of South Carolina-based Onic Corp. proposed paying $20 million to Atlanta-based Jacoby Development for control of JDI Cumberland Inlet, the entity that had promised to build a marina and mixed-use development in Camden County. Onic would also pay the company’s $10.1 million debt to the county development authority and local back taxes of about $138,000, according to the terms of the deal filed in bankruptcy court and approved by a judge Nov. 12.
The judge’s order comes after a second company associated with the stalled development withdrew objections to the terms. The proposal lacked “feasibility and good faith,” according to Safe & Green, a company that under a former name was an early joint venture partner in the site. In writing, the company objected to Onic’s plan, saying the proposed buyout included no earnest money as a down payment and no satisfactory resolution to the $4.7 million that it is owed. However after a minor modification about responsibility for Safe & Green’s payout, the company OK’d it.
The proposal illustrates the challenges that different creditors can face in bankruptcy court — those who are considered secured versus nonsecured.
The Camden County Joint Development Authority, a public agency, loaned about $11 million to Jacoby Development in 2020 and 2021 to help clean up the polluted, 719-acre site to set the stage for the upscale development envisioned by the company’s chief executive, Jim Jacoby.
The development authority supports the proposed Onic purchase of Cumberland Inlet. The Jacoby firm’s bankruptcy filings indicate the development authority has a $10.1 million secured claim on it. The development authority has sued the bankrupt entity in a Camden court to recoup more than $9 million of those funds.
However, if Onic fails to close on the transaction by Jan. 5, 2026, the development authority would take the title to the site, under the terms proposed to the bankruptcy court.
“Throughout this process our goals have been to protect the investment of Camden taxpayer dollars and to ensure that the site has the best opportunity to be redeveloped in a manner that benefits the community,” the statement said. The proposed deal means “that those goals will be achieved,” it said.
If Onic’s deal falls through, the development authority would recoup its money by selling the land to “one or several of the interested parties who have expressed interest in purchasing it over the past year,” it said.
Onic has not made any public statement about the proposal. The firm has no website and could not be reached for comment. Ginn has previously been the subject of news articles that suggests a checkered history of business and development deals.