An industrial park just west of Wilmington is among the sites where heavy equipment-maker Caterpillar is considering building a plant that would employ 1,400 people.
The project would deepen North Carolina's already close ties with the Illinois-based company, which over the past 18 months has received about $50 million in state and local incentives for projects in Winston-Salem, Sanford and Clayton.
Rep. Dewey Hill, a Democrat who represents Brunswick and Columbus counties, confirmed Monday that the company is considering the 1,000-acre International Logistics Park along the border between Brunswick and Columbus counties.
"I feel sort of good about the project right now," said Hill, who has been involved in some of the discussions. "It's going to be heavy, real heavy, anywhere from a 1,000 to 1,800 (jobs). And of course it's Caterpillar and they're a great company."
Caterpillar announced in November it was looking for a site in the United States to manufacture mini excavators and small tractors. The factory would employ 1,400 people and handle manufacturing currently done in Japan.
Speculation that the plant would be built in North Carolina ratcheted up last week after the Associated Press obtained an email from company officials that said the facility would be located close to Caterpillar's division headquarters in Cary.
The email was sent to Illinois officials who had also hoped to land the project.
Caterpillar has refused to confirm the report, saying only that it will make a decision on the site before April 1.
"We have not yet commented on where we are looking for this project and that remains true today," Caterpillar spokesman Jim Dugan said Monday.
Hill said he believes the company has narrowed its search to just North Carolina. He wasn't aware of any other sites in the state being considered.
Land ownership
The logistics park is adjacent to another industrial site, the Mid-Atlantic Logistics Center, where Continental Tire last year considered building a $500 million facility that would have brought as many as 1,500 jobs to the area.
Continental ended up choosing a site in South Carolina, which led to a wave of political bickering between Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Bev Perdue over who was to blame.
Republican Senate leader Phil Berger raised ethical concerns over a Democratic state senator and Democratic donors owning the land where Continental planned to locate.
The International Logistics Park is owned by the counties.
The Continental project also raised questions because the company wanted $45 million in cash incentives up front. Most state incentives deals are structured so that the company receives annual payments after meeting certain investment and hiring milestones.
A 'Tier 1' county
Caterpillar is likely seeking more state incentives for its latest project. The N.C. Department of Commerce does not discuss whether it is or is not working with a company in any capacity, spokesman Tim Crowley said.
Although the logistics park straddles two counties, the entire site has been designated as being in a "Tier 1" county, a classification commerce officials give to the 40 most distressed counties.
The designation would allow Caterpillar to receive more state incentives than it received in Lee, which is a Tier 2 county, and Forsyth and Johnston counties, both of which are Tier 3 counties.
Caterpillar's three active incentives packages with the state call for it to invest nearly $500 million and add more than 1,000 jobs in the coming years. It will file its first annual report for the Winston-Salem and Sanford projects this year. The Clayton expansion was announced earlier this month.
Caterpillar already employs nearly 2,000 workers at a half-dozen locations in North Carolina. It has been ramping up its manufacturing capacity here after cutting hundreds of jobs in the state during the recession.
In the email made public last week, Caterpillar identified logistics, port access and proximity to Cary as the needs that are driving its search.
Hill said he didn't think winning the Caterpillar project would require the state to make improvements to the Port of Wilmington. In late 2010, state officials put on hold a controversial proposal to build a $3 billion international shipping terminal near Southport.
"They're OK with it," Hill said of the port.
