A Camden County public agency is seeking a new developer for the roughly 700-acre Gilman Paper site in St. Marys, after Atlanta-based developer Jim Jacoby squandered a final chance to pay millions of dollars of debt to the county.
Under a deal agreed in a bankruptcy court, Jacoby’s company JDI Cumberland Inlet, LLC lost control of the Gilman Paper site Tuesday to the Camden County Joint Development Authority. The agency lent the firm approximately $11 million in 2021 and 2022 to start work on a planned riverfront development.
But the development never happened and about $9 million of the loan has not been paid back.
With fees and interest, the JDA estimates its loss at $10.5 million — but expects to recoup that money by selling the property to one or more new developers. A new sale would also clear back taxes of about $150,000 owed to St. Marys and Camden County, according to court documents.
“It’s never good news to have to go through something like this,” said James Coughlin, executive director of the Camden County JDA. “But now we’re finally in a position to be able to move forward, to be able to select another developer.”
Coughlin said his agency is sending out a request for proposals from new developers today.
A separate Camden County Superior Court case brought by the JDA against Cumberland Inlet against the company to force repayment of the loan will be dismissed, Coughlin said.
The developer came to Camden with an impressive portfolio of mixed-use developments on old industrial sites like Atlantic Station in Atlanta and Porsche’s North American headquarters by the city’s airport.
Jacoby’s Camden plans for an ecotourism camp, marina, hotel and real estate developments attracted Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and other state leaders for the ceremonial 2022 groundbreaking for Cumberland Inlet.
But financial problems for the Camden project surfaced in late 2024, when the company was late with a scheduled loan payment to the development authority.
By March 2025, Couglin’s agency was ready to sell the site on the courthouse steps, but Cumberland Inlet’s last-minute bankruptcy filing stopped the sale.
Jacoby and his attorney insisted that potential partners were interested in the site — even producing a letter that said Cumberland Inlet would be bought out by a South Carolina developer through a company called Onic on January 5, 2026.
The court granted Onic and Jacoby one more week to close that transaction, but the money never materialized in the JDA’s bank account.
That lack of payment triggered Camden JDA’s right to file deeds, already signed by Jacoby, confirming the land transfer.