The office of Governor Roy Cooper has announced the multi-million-dollar expansion of a Burlington-based food processing plant that promises to add some 135 new jobs to local labor market.
According to the governor’s office, Alamance Foods has accepted a state-level subsidy to defray the cost of the proposed expansion of an existing facility in Burlington, which is located along Cedar Crest Drive, not far from Burlington’s border with Graham. This Job Development Investment Grant will be worth up to $611,110 in state-funded incentives over a 12-year period provided that the company meets certain criteria in the facility’s forthcoming expansion.
In exchange for these state-level payments, Alamance Foods has agreed to invest $42 million into the expansion of its existing food processing plant and hire an additional 135 workers with an average salary of $47,063 – or $64 more than the prevailing wage in Alamance County.
Prior to the governor’s announcement on Tuesday, Alamance Foods had submitted a request to the city of Burlington for an even larger package of financial incentives. Although the company’s name wasn’t attached to the publicly-released version of this request, it nevertheless referred to the same plant that Alamance Foods currently operates along Cedar Crest Drive, not far from Burlington’s border with Graham.
In its submission to the city, the company requested $630,000 in cash payments over a five year period as well as the waiver of $100,000 or so in planning and development fees. In exchange for this $730,000 inducement, the company is promising to increase the tax value of its existing facility $42 million and expand its workforce by at least 140 new employees.
Alamance Foods withdrew this request for local incentives shortly before it was scheduled to be heard by Burlington’s city council on November 1.
Since then, city officials have informed The Alamance News that the company will present another request for incentives at the council’s next meeting on January 3.
