With a focus on job creation, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors Monday approved incentives to bring another start-up company to the county.
The supervisors approved fee-in-lieu of taxes agreements and a memorandum of understanding for Sillicor, formerly called Calisolar, a company chaired by John Correnti, who brought Severstal Steel to the area.
The MOU covers two phases of the company. The first phase, which represents about a $200 million investment, involves the manufacture of silicon metal, the raw material in a wide variety of products from cosmetics to automobile parts. Groundbreaking on the manufacturing facility is expected in June.
The second phase of the project — another $235 million to $250 million investment — is a silicon purification plant, where the material is refined and put into ingots, or masses of metal cast into molds for storage or transportation and later processing.
“Those will be shipped to customers, primarily in China or the United States, to be made into computer chips or solar panels,” explained Board President Harry Sanders, noting the company is expected to hire about 200 employees for the first phase and about 500 employees for the silicon purification plant.
For the first time, under agreements approved by the current supervisors, the county will assess a penalty to the company if the promised jobs don’t materialize.
“If the number of jobs falls below what was promised, the fee-in-lieu payment will increase from 33 percent to 50 percent,” said District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks.
“This is different than any other agreement (we’ve approved in the past),” Sanders said. “We’ve been primarily concerned at what our fee-in-lieu (of taxes) agreement amount is going to be and how much they’re going to invest. But with the unemployment (rate) as it is, if we’re going to invest the money, we need to make sure we get jobs.”
The first phase of Sillicor will be located on Manufacturer’s Drive, south of Artesia Road and south of Weyerhaeuser’s existing fluff mill, on a county-owned 90-acre tract of land.
The county will rent the land — at a price of $50,000 per year — to the company for 10 years, before selling the land, Sanders said.
The county also will upgrade the water and sewer system in the area and upgrade Manufacturer’s Drive, looping it from Artesia Road to Bent Oak Road and back into Artesia Road, Sanders added.
For the second phase, the county has the option to purchase an additional 150 adjacent acres.
“It means jobs, primarily,” Sanders said of the agreements struck Monday. “It’s guaranteed at least 700 jobs and we’re counting on the possibility of 900 jobs. If you’ve got people working, it generates money to the county, which helps the city, too.”
The state also is offering $60 million in incentives.
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