For the time being it is called “Project Presents,” but its real name will soon be known and it is bringing the people of Union County presents of $4.5 million in investment and 124 new jobs.
Union County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a resolution authorizing the county to enter into an inducement agreement with the industry currently designated as Project Presents. The resolution states that the county will enter into a 20-year, fee-in-lieu of taxes agreement with the company reducing the property tax rate Project Presents will pay on their property from 10.5 percent to 6 percent. In a related matter, council also approved first reading of an ordinance authorizing the fee-in-lieu of taxes agreement.
The county will also provide Project Presents with a special source revenue credit tax incentive and designate the site its facility will operate from as a multi-county industrial park.
In exchange for receiving these incentives, Project Presents will invest $4.5 million in its new facility and create “124 new, full-time jobs, with benefits,” in Union County.
Supervisor Tommy Sinclair declined to reveal the true identity of Project Presents other than to say that, in cooperation with the company and the SC Department of Commerce, “there will be an announcement relatively soon.” Sinclair also declined to reveal where Project Presents will be located, saying only that it “will occupy an existing facility.”
Sinclair, however, pointed out that Project Presents is the latest in a series of new industries and industrial expansions announced within the past year. He said this is a sign of how the county’s efforts to look to the future to promote economic development are paying off and will continue to pay off as it continues to focus on the recruitment of new business and industry.
“If you look over the past months at ESAB, Gestamp and now Presents, it’s like I’ve said before it’s not the last one but the next one,” Sinclair said.
Union County Development Board Executive Director Andrena Powell-Baker also attended Tuesday’s meeting and said Project Presents is the result of a successful collaboration between the county, the development board, the Department of Commerce, and the company itself.
“We have worked very closely with the SC Department of Commerce,” Powell-Baker said. “Also, we’ve worked very closely with the company itself to be sure the deal went through successfully.”
By Charles Warner, Staff Reporter with The Union Daily Times
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