Courier Georgia: “Kemp’s company, Shelter Rock, had struggled to sell the properties for more than a decade. But two years into his term as governor, he sold them—all to buyers who later received something from the state.”
Damning new reporting from Courier Georgia reveals that Governor Brian Kemp shed significant debt through his real estate company, Shelter Rock, which struggled to sell properties for more than a decade — and then sold them “all to buyers who later received something from the state.”
These new findings add to corruption scandals mounting for both Kemp and his handpicked GOP U.S. Senate candidate Derek Dooley after a recent investigation exposed that Governor Kemp’s administration lined up tens of millions of Georgia taxpayer dollars for the Dooley family and received over $100,000 from the Dooley family to his PAC, which he then used to boost Derek Dooley’s Senate campaign — raising obvious questions of possible corruption and pay-to-play politics.
Courier Georgia: Brian Kemp sold lakefront properties. The buyers got state contracts, board seats, and new laws.
By Colleen Hamilton | June 2, 2026
KEY EXCERPTS:
- While serving as Georgia’s 83rd governor, Brian Kemp has never stopped doing business.
- He has long held interests in a range of private companies: rental properties in Athens, a former investment stake in the agribusiness Hart AgStrong, and a real estate company called Shelter Rock Partners. But unlike some elected officials, he never placed those assets in a blind trust. He has continued to manage and profit from them throughout his time in office.
- When Kemp entered the governor’s mansion in 2019, he carried significant debt. But by the end of his first term, much of it had vanished.
- New reporting by Courier Georgia has found that one of the ways he shed it was by selling lakefront properties in a series of six-figure transactions. Kemp’s company, Shelter Rock, had struggled to sell the properties for more than a decade. But two years into his term as governor, he sold them—all to buyers who later received something from the state.
- Documents obtained by Courier show deeds, property records, and contracts that tie Kemp to all of the buyers in various business deals, political affiliations, and appointments.
- Less than four months after purchasing one of the lakefront parcels, Donnie Richards’ company, Network Cabling Infrastructures (NCI), signed a statewide contract to supply security and surveillance products to Georgia agencies. […]
- These revelations emerge as Kemp faces separate scrutiny over his personal ties to state business. Recent reporting found Kemp steered millions of dollars in state education contracts to Daniel Dooley, one of his closest friends. Daniel is the brother of Derek Dooley, the Republican Senate candidate. Kemp has endorsed Derek, campaigned alongside him, and his PAC has backed his primary with more than $3 million.
- According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kemp’s net worth grew by 65% during his first term in office. That growth mostly came from the elimination of $6.3 million of debt.
- Among the liabilities that were dragging down his balance sheet were three lakefront parcels along Lake Strom Thurmond, the sprawling reservoir straddling the Georgia-South Carolina border also known as Clarks Hill Lake.
- In September 2007, Shelter Rock Partners agreed to pay more than $1 million to acquire roughly 161 acres. The land was carved into several parcels, some with dockable shorelines on the US Army Corps of Engineers-managed lake.
- The timing was disastrous. The Great Recession hit, lakefront development stalled, and the parcels sat empty year after year. Archived real estate listings show one parcel asking $195,000 in 2010, a price that had been slashed 54% to $89,000 by February 2020, and still found no buyers.
- By then, Shelter Rock had twice renegotiated the terms of its loan and still owed the bank more than half a million dollars on land it held for thirteen years.
- Then Kemp became governor.
- Two years into his tenure, all three parcels finally had buyers in a series of six-figure transactions—far more than the 2020 asking price—that helped erase the debt the company had carried for over a decade. Kemp signed the deeds for the transactions himself. […]
- The scrutiny arrives at a potentially uncomfortable moment. Kemp has staked the final chapter of his governorship on electing Dooley to the US Senate, who will face US Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) in a runoff on June 16th. […]
- For a relatively unknown first-time candidate like Dooley, who is a former University of Tennessee football coach and attorney, that association with Kemp is the strategy.
- “He doesn’t have a record and he’s not nearly as well known,” [political science professor at the University of Georgia Charles] Bullock said. “There’s a strong incentive for Dooley to see if some of Kemp’s popularity will rub off.”
- But if the scrutiny surrounding the governor deepens, the same bond that buoys Dooley’s candidacy could weigh it down.