Sean Kim, a Georgia real estate agent who speaks Korean, moved to Pooler in 2023 to corner a niche market: finding temporary housing for the hundreds of workers helping to build Georgia’s largest economic development project.
For nearly two years, Kim arranged for the Korean construction workers, technicians, and engineers to sleep in dozens of mobile homes plopped on rural plots of land, rented rooms in owner-occupied homes, and even a makeshift bed and breakfast, all within an easy drive of the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America site in Bryan County.
But, that golden period ended in September when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raided the Ellabell electric vehicle factory and detained more than 300 Korean workers. Just like construction on the EV battery plant where many of these specialized employees had worked, Kim’s business has come to a halt…