[0:00] okay so uh we're going to get started tonight for

[0:05] uh this is our special call joint meeting with uh ashford city and

[0:09] the randolph county board of commissioners and uh

[0:12] for all of you that are participating we've been meeting in this fashion

[0:15] several times in the last couple years and uh for various reasons and

[0:21] i think it's good that we can work together for the betterment of our

[0:24] city and our county together which we we serve the same people

[0:28] and i think that's very important so and i also want to say we are streaming

[0:33] live right now on facebook and youtube doug moore's back there he's been with

[0:39] us through these uh videos both both our county

[0:43] commissioners meetings our hospital meetings that we've had

[0:47] public hearings and uh work real well and i just want to

[0:50] give him a little acknowledgement tonight for uh

[0:54] and michael as they uh make these uh types of

[0:58] meetings possible i i never i thought zoom is what my daddy

[1:02] accused me of doing in the car but i've learned

[1:06] it's got a different meaning and i'm sure you have to

[1:08] so with that i'm going to recognize mayor smith david

[1:12] thank you for your counsel thank you chairman uh

[1:15] it's my pleasure to have you all here tonight in the public works conference

[1:18] room in the city of asheboro uh and i will call this meeting to order

[1:24] on behalf of the city council thank you mayor and i will call the order

[1:28] the meeting to order on behalf of the randolph county board of commissioners

[1:31] i will say a little further we are considering two economic development

[1:36] incentive packages tonight just so you folks here and the folks at

[1:42] home will know how we're doing this and the first one the mayor will uh

[1:46] convene the public hearing and he will close the public hearing

[1:49] and then on the second project i will do that

[1:52] to open and close the public hearing so that's sort of the process that we'll

[1:56] follow tonight of course our friends uh kevin and crystal from economic

[2:02] development they will do the presenting on each case so with that we are

[2:08] in order again thank all of you for being here and um

[2:11] kevin i'll turn it over to you

[2:16] i will call this meeting uh open the public hearing

[2:20] on item 3a project avocado

[2:25] thank you mr chairman mr mayor and members of council and

[2:28] board of commissioners privileged to be here this evening and it's always

[2:32] exciting to come before you with the project

[2:35] i'm here this evening to talk about project avocado which is the code name

[2:39] that we've been using to date this is an expansion project

[2:43] under consideration by star pet inc here in asheboro and star pet is a

[2:47] wholly owned subsidiary of thailand-based endurama ventures which

[2:51] is a global petrochemical producer with a presence in 33 different

[2:56] countries locally the company is located at 801

[3:01] pineview road here in asheboro star pet was a

[3:04] acquired in 2003 by endorama it was actually the first overseas plant

[3:09] acquired by endorama ventures star pet manufactures p-e-t polymers

[3:15] that's polyethylene pterophthalid

[3:20] in case anyone uh was wondering about that

[3:23] it's used in the production of p-e-t bottles sheets and other applications so

[3:27] the water bottles that we use for example are manufactured from p-e-t

[3:32] according to the company's website the the plant's annual production capacity

[3:36] when it was acquired back in 2003 was about 50 000 tons capacity has since

[3:43] increased more than five-fold exceeding 260 thousand tons

[3:47] per year now this growth is really an evidence of successful operations and

[3:51] good management of the ashboro facility the expansion

[3:56] project under consideration is related to an internal commitment by indorama

[4:00] ventures to increase the company's production of recycled pet

[4:04] the company proposes to invest a total of 17.4 million dollars in the project

[4:09] including 5.2 million in real property and 12.2 million in machinery and

[4:14] equipment the real property investment will

[4:17] include include renovations to the existing

[4:20] building including upfits to the existing production area

[4:24] to accommodate the new equipment there will be office upgrades

[4:28] and new lab space built as well as an expansion

[4:32] for new warehouse space for this material

[4:36] should star pet opt to pursue the expansion in ashford the company will

[4:39] retain its current full-time workforce of 103 employees

[4:43] and will commit to creation of 11 new full-time positions

[4:47] and these new jobs will have an average annual wage of fifty thousand

[4:51] nine hundred nine dollars adding approximately five hundred sixty

[4:55] thousand dollars annually to the company's payroll and i will note

[5:00] that the company of the current randolph county private sector average

[5:03] wage is thirty six thousand six hundred twenty two dollars right now so these

[5:07] wages are substantially higher than our current average wage and these

[5:12] are the types of jobs jobs that we love to see coming to the

[5:14] community this recycling project is competitive

[5:18] with two other company facilities in another state

[5:21] and so this incentive request before you this evening is a necessary

[5:24] consideration for star pet to proceed with the expansion project locally

[5:29] the edc is recommending consideration of an incentive package of

[5:32] up to 455 thousand dollars over five years

[5:36] and this is inclusive of a five thousand dollar match commitment for

[5:40] a north carolina commerce building reuse grant

[5:44] for which they are eligible in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars

[5:48] uh the building reuse grant would assist with the renovation and expansion costs

[5:54] and since the company is located within the corporate limits of the city of

[5:57] ashford the city then would consider approving this

[6:00] authorization for application as i have stated this is

[6:05] a little bit different type of project but as i have stated the

[6:08] project is heavily focused on recycling and the equipment and facility and any

[6:13] equipment and facilitate facilities that are dedicated solely to

[6:16] recycling are exempt from local property taxes in north carolina

[6:21] the total payment made to or on behalf of the company shall be determined based

[6:25] upon the value of the equipment and facilities

[6:28] that are subject to local property tax and the edc recommends that payments

[6:33] made to the company be an amount that is equal to 50 percent

[6:38] of the anticipated tax revenue generated by the generated by the project over a

[6:42] five-year period and that would be determined that actual

[6:46] amount of taxable investment would be

[6:49] determined by an audit performed by the north carolina

[6:52] department of environmental quality and that audit would be conducted after

[6:57] construction is completed and the equipment is in service so based

[7:02] on the company's investment of seventeen point four

[7:05] million dollars the total incentive amount

[7:08] would not exceed four hundred fifty five thousand dollars

[7:11] including the five thousand dollar match for the building reuse grant

[7:15] and as we've stated we anticipate the actual incentive amount amount to be

[7:19] significantly less than that but not to be determined until that deq

[7:23] audit is conducted the edc does believe that the star pet

[7:27] expansion is a great economic development project for the city of

[7:29] ashbury and randolph county in introducing a sustainable and

[7:33] environmentally friendly process of production it increases the value of

[7:37] the building and results and the creation of 11 new high quality

[7:42] jobs in the community therefore we request that the city and county approve

[7:45] a five-year incentive agreement for the company

[7:48] in an amount not to exceed 455 000 with payments to be split evenly between

[7:53] the city and the county i would also like to

[7:57] acknowledge that parker poe has been working on behalf of

[8:00] the company on this process and we are represented here

[8:04] by mallory sparks with parker poe on behalf of the company i'm happy to

[8:10] answer any questions that anyone may have

[8:13] about the project

[8:19] do you have anything that you want to say tonight

[8:24] okay all right thank you kevin

[8:33] that's correct the the grant match is paid up at the time

[8:38] of the filing

[8:42] the grant match is paid it has to be the first dollars

[8:46] in as a part of part of the grant but it doesn't get paid in

[8:50] until the company verifies that they've already

[8:54] begun to expend funds for the renovation project

[8:58] so the the 450 balance or 225 each that's sort of a

[9:05] cap not to exceed number that's correct that is a not to exceed number

[9:09] yes

[9:14] normally we would give kind of a hard and fast number

[9:17] but in this instance because it is a recycling project we're not able to do

[9:21] that up front because the audit comes after completion

[9:24] of the project

[9:29] for how much that's going to be uh i mean it all

[9:33] i i don't um i expect that the vast majority if not all

[9:40] of the equipment and machinery will be exempt

[9:43] from taxation since it's specifically for this production

[9:47] and i do expect that a sizable portion of the

[9:50] renovation project and expansion will be also exempt

[9:54] but that's really as far as i'm willing to um

[9:58] to guess does our tax department make that determination

[10:03] the north carolina department of environmental quality will

[10:07] conduct that audit so that will be the state determining

[10:11] what is and is not that's correct and the tax department that's correct

[10:23] that's right and then once we have that number

[10:26] then that will determine what the actual incentive payments will be

[10:31] fifty percent of anticipated revenue over a five year period

[10:49] thank you thank you i don't see any unfamiliar faces

[10:53] is there anyone in the room that would like to address the body tonight

[10:57] regarding this request

[11:04] we will move to the deliberative phase of the hearing and

[11:11] i'll turn it over to them

[11:16] all right does any commissioner have any other questions on the project

[11:20] before we ask for a motion uh mr to clarify

[11:27] to clarify others how many again people

[11:33] there's there's how many employees there are 103

[11:40] employees with this project thank you and the

[11:45] building reuse grant is based partly on that number of employees

[12:09] another 560 thousand dollars in an annual

[12:12] local payroll too

[12:18] right yep other questions i guess this is maybe more of a question

[12:24] with you know david in the city but um and this is just informational it

[12:28] doesn't really have a whole lot of bearing on but so um with

[12:32] all the project change and the whole you know i

[12:34] guess the new equipment and some expansion and

[12:37] employees is there any land use change or is it all on the same footprint

[12:41] just inside equipment i just wonder with all the rail spurs and everything

[12:45] that's pretty tight site there the city of the county do see some

[12:51] additional revenue because they're one of the largest users of brake cars

[12:56] right now corridor

[13:03] i just wondered thank you other questions good question

[13:07] what's the pleasure of our board

[13:22] second by commissioner kidd further discussion

[13:26] in questions those in favor will say aye aye opposed no and mr mayor it is

[13:32] approved unanimously by county commissioners

[13:35] thanks sir uh council uh what's your preference

[13:40] here do i have a motion mayor i know the

[13:44] resolution officers thank you mr bell have a motion by mr

[13:50] bell may i have a second second mr moffatt oh any discussion

[13:57] all in favor say aye all opposed motion carries unanimously for the city

[14:05] and i will close this public action and turn it over to chairman price

[14:12] thank you mr mayor and i will call to order the

[14:16] open the public hearing for the second project and uh i will

[14:22] introduce crystal gettys who is our business recruitment director for

[14:26] randolph county edc

[14:32] thank you commissioner fry and councilman and mayor

[14:35] smith and city council i appreciate your meeting with us tonight and uh to follow

[14:42] kevin on an existing industry project i would like to follow up with a new

[14:46] project that is a potential for randolph county

[14:51] and the city of asheboro

[14:55] based on the summary that we provided earlier

[14:58] the project name is systems and the company is sadia systems llc

[15:05] the investment overall total investment for this company is over three million

[15:09] dollars of that includes over 2.2 million

[15:13] dollars in real property and over 832 000

[15:18] in personal property this is over a five-year period

[15:22] and they would create 14 new jobs over that five-year period

[15:26] their average wages are 90 714 which is well above our county average

[15:32] wage the incentive proposal for the local

[15:36] incentives they do qualify as a new company for local incentives uh

[15:41] in the amount of thirty six thousand five hundred and thirty two dollars

[15:45] divided evenly between randolph county and the city of asheboro i would like to

[15:49] make note a correction on your sheet um a little

[15:53] uh additional pro uh error there it states 18

[15:58] 266 per jurisdiction that um yours says 18 03 11 and it should be 18

[16:05] to 66 if you divide that in half so please make that note to tell you a

[16:10] little bit about the company sadia systems incorporate is a global

[16:14] fixed lecture room auditorium and

[16:17] multi-purpose seating company who is considering a consolidation of

[16:22] their two north carolina facilities and relocation of their chicago

[16:27] headquarters and showroom to asheboro the project is in competition with two

[16:33] other states at the time and they are in the process of doing

[16:36] their due diligence in those other two states

[16:39] this uh is potential for us but again we are still in competition

[16:44] and uh this hearing is just part of the process

[16:47] and finding out where we stand with the incentives as they complete their due

[16:52] diligence on all sites and hopefully their decision will be

[16:55] coming shortly after the purpose of the project would be to

[16:59] retrofit an existing 60 000 square foot building located at

[17:03] 335 commerce place and 401 commerce place to

[17:07] accommodate the consolidation of their two facilities in high point

[17:11] one of those facilities is actually in randolph county and the other is in

[17:15] guilford county as well as their headquarters and

[17:18] showroom that is now in chicago the project will again create 14 new

[17:24] jobs over a five-year period with the average wages of over 90 000

[17:28] the current private sector average wage in the county is thirty six

[17:33] thousand six twenty two the incentive proposal of

[17:36] the thirty six thousand five thirty two is based on the

[17:40] projected investment of the building renovations

[17:45] plus the real property and the building renovations is anticipated at 750

[17:50] 000 and personal property investment of over 832

[17:53] 000 this reflects a 50 property tax incentive over a five-year period

[18:00] which is our typical local incentive offer and time period for an agreement

[18:06] this would be shared equally between randolph county and the city of asheboro

[18:11] again in the amount of 18 266 for each the project is eligible

[18:18] for a building reuse grant through the north carolina department of rural

[18:23] infrastructure authority for the the building reuse grant it is a

[18:29] two-year program and for them they um are required to

[18:32] create nine jobs within those two years

[18:38] the maximum building reuse grant consideration

[18:41] would be one hundred thousand dollars with a five percent match

[18:45] of five thousand dollars from the local government and

[18:48] again to be divided between randolph county and the city of asheboro

[18:53] the ed edc recommends any match requirements for the state grant be

[18:58] included in the overall local incentive offer of the 36532

[19:04] the edc is seeking consensus from randolph county in the city of asheboro

[19:08] for the total incentive author including any required grant matching

[19:12] dollars with the clear understanding that the final incentive

[19:15] amount will be calculated will be the calculation of 50 percent of

[19:19] the projected tax revenue over five years based on the

[19:24] state's determination of taxable property following

[19:27] the completed build out and renovations of

[19:30] the project i am happy to answer any questions you may have

[19:36] concerning this project crystal just so we're clear

[19:40] explain why one's got 14 jobs and one has nine

[19:43] it has to do with just qualifying for the that's right

[19:47] again the nine jobs comes into play for the building reuse grant and it's a

[19:51] two-year program and that's the the number of jobs they plan to create

[19:55] during that that first two years of the project and

[19:58] that's what the state um holds them accountable to so

[20:03] that's why there's two different figures there but for the local

[20:07] grant the five-year period time frame for the agreement they

[20:12] are committed to con

[20:16] employing at least 14 or creating 14 new jobs

[20:20] so what's what's the expertise that brings that average wage to 90

[20:24] 000 well these are high-end some of them are

[20:27] engineered uh engineer higher-end employment positions that they have

[20:34] accounting positions a lot of engineering positions controller

[20:38] most of their assembly or manufacturing jobs

[20:42] are are contracted jobs and they're very seasonal

[20:46] so these are their main administrative and

[20:50] overall company jobs that they'll be creating

[20:55] but there will be some manufacturing in the facility here and

[20:58] yes they will there will be and those those jobs will be on a contracted basis

[21:03] okay all right and just and so this is on the corner which i'm familiar with

[21:07] just for clarification for everybody so i'm kind of on the corner of bank

[21:10] street and commerce as you go up commerce there once you've cropped over

[21:13] the bank streets over there to the left yeah it it is on

[21:17] right off of commerce drive right after you turn off banks

[21:21] and it is currently owned by multimill that's been vacant the building's been

[21:27] vacant for at least a year and a half so we're excited that the building will

[21:31] be put back into use and create some jobs as well and good

[21:35] paying jobs i would say crystal and i drove down to

[21:40] sanford a couple weeks ago to meet with our edc folks and she had

[21:44] the conversation with this gentleman for half of our ride down there so i got

[21:49] to listen into all that uh and it sounds like he's he he likes

[21:54] us he likes our project he likes our

[21:56] location i don't know if you have a different sense of that i know i know

[22:00] we've got two other states here indiana and michigan but

[22:04] he does he's very familiar with north carolina as i stated before he has two

[22:08] facilities in high point one in randolph county one

[22:12] in guilford county so he's very familiar with this area and much of his supply

[22:17] chain comes from this in the state but this is

[22:20] a really a global company that that manufactures in in

[22:26] various places and and uh installs all over the world so

[22:30] uh but there are other opportunities for them that

[22:34] makes good business sense as well and which is why they're entertaining to

[22:37] other states questions just a follow-up from chairman

[22:44] fry and this is kind of but um and just talking about the

[22:48] project and everything and you're kevin's work on this

[22:50] um i know both of these boards have kind of gotten together with

[22:54] edc and y'all are doing a great job recruiting people but and i know we had

[22:57] talked about in some of those meetings you know

[22:59] really putting our best foot forward and taking a big swing in the bat

[23:02] to try you know to land these kind of things does this give you the tools you

[23:06] need to put our best foot forward i'm sure it

[23:09] does but well this certainly helps them and lets

[23:13] them know that we want to be a partner with them and that we're going to assist

[23:17] them not only in being the applicant for the building

[23:19] reuse grant that they qualify with the state but also local incentives

[23:24] that will help them with their building reuse and so

[23:27] i think it i think it's a good message that we send to them and support

[23:31] yeah and i think it is good that we are incentivizing

[23:35] a local business i mean he has a facility already here but we we want him

[23:40] to stay here that's right good comments other

[23:44] questions [Music]

[23:48] all right thank you what's the pleasure of the board

[23:54] oh yes i will any other speakers on behalf of this project

[23:59] [Music] hearing none then i will close the

[24:02] public hearing and uh we will come back to the uh let's see

[24:07] mayor you're first counsel do you have any

[24:11] any further questions

[24:14] i'll entertain a motion to adopt this resolution

[24:29] thank you mr bell i have a motion by councilman bell to approve my reference

[24:34] may i have a second second mr burks is the second

[24:38] in discussion all in favor say aye all right all opposed motion carries

[24:45] unanimously thank you mayor smith okay uh

[24:51] county commissioners any other questions or concerns or entertain a motion

[24:58] mr chairman i'd love to make a motion to adopt a resolution authorizing the

[25:02] county of randolph to enter into economic senior contract with

[25:07] cydia am i pronouncing that right systems incorporated

[25:12] thank you and second by commissioner heywood

[25:15] further discussion questions those in favor will say aye

[25:20] i oppose no and it is approved so um i will

[25:27] say again thank all of you for participating in this process

[25:30] um it's it's falling on deaf ears i know but

[25:35] i i i do want to comment um we're going through two projects that

[25:42] that do two things they're showing that we have a local business

[25:45] that is doing well and is growing and adding jobs

[25:50] and we have another another business that's expanding good for economic

[25:53] development and we get no coverage on it

[25:58] uh pretty much nobody's gonna know this meeting ever took place tonight and that

[26:03] concerns me a lot and we've all had some discussions among

[26:07] ourselves about some of our local news and i did a

[26:10] 45-minute interview two months ago that's never been one

[26:15] word printed on it um about the county and and

[26:20] issues in the county but uh i don't know what we can do about it but i i do think

[26:25] that um

[26:31] but i i just want to make that calm any other business on the part of the county

[26:35] commissioners can i follow up on what you said i'm

[26:38] equally as frustrated we've all talked about that with you know

[26:41] coverage or whatever and and both of our boards are trying to do what we can to

[26:44] promote ashbur and randolph county but you know i think it's appropriate to

[26:48] applaud kevin and crystal and the work they're doing to

[26:51] let north carolina and the united states and the globe know that randolph county

[26:55] and asheboro is open for business so thank you for bringing these and i

[26:59] appreciate you being here and your hard work

[27:02] good things and it's some of the some of the best news

[27:06] that we've had and uh very very uh beneficial good paying jobs benefits um

[27:14] that's great especially in the times that we're in

[27:17] that growth this growth these kinds of investments has taken

[27:22] place so uh it's been crystal's been with us about a

[27:26] year now and uh kevin's about a year in his

[27:31] new capacity and continue to work and i'm just tell you and david just

[27:37] served on the edc board also but uh

[27:41] it's hard to competition's tough and i think this is it's kenny's

[27:49] kudos to to you and your efforts and i got listening on the conversation and uh

[27:56] crystal's professionalism and dealing with the individual

[28:00] and uh his uh to me his uh interest and and uh in randolph county

[28:07] and and our and the city of asheboro for for their

[28:09] future so thank you hear no other business

[28:14] uh do i have a motion to adjourn thank you

[28:17] county commissioners are adjourned

[28:22] let me add one comment briefly to what we've just talked about kevin

[28:28] crystal um

[28:34] they are working very hard with their board and subsequently

[28:39] the municipalities in the county that they represent to increase

[28:46] the tools they have to be more attractive

[28:50] we're trying to find possible speculative and more

[28:54] more sites for the inventory so we have have a lot of work to do in that area

[29:00] to step up and be as competitive as possible

[29:04] so i know that it is a big thing that they're working on with their war

[29:09] so as we move forward we all need to make sure that we do what we can to uh

[29:15] to help them put those those assets in place uh

[29:20] anything else from the city

[29:24] i will ask for a motion to adjourn

[29:31] second

[29:35] parasite all right

[29:44] before i'm sick

Special Joint Meeting Randolph County and Asheboro City October 20th, 2020

Transcript