[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