Orange County weighs tax incentive to relocate, expand Durham metal factory
Update: The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted to approve the incentives for Piedmont Metalworks on Nov. 19, 2019.
An Orange County company wants a five-year tax discount to move its sister company in Durham and add 42 jobs to a metalworking campus on U.S. 70 in Efland.
Chief executive officer Richie Richmond wants to consolidate the Durham-based Piedmont Metalworks LLC operations with Forma-Fab Metals. A 40,000-square-foot production space would be built at 5816 U.S. 70 near Buckhorn Road, doubling the company’s current space in Durham.
Piedmont Metalworks also is looking at potential sites in Alamance County, county staff said. Company officials contacted Orange County’s economic development office in July about available financial incentives, and the Orange County Board of Commissioners talked about a potential offer during a Sept. 3 closed session.
The commissioners will consider at a public hearing Tuesday night whether to give Piedmont Metalworks an $86,261 tax incentive over five years to move its Durham operation to the Forma-Fab Metals campus on U.S. 70. The company also has a facility nearby on East Washington Street.
The county’s discussion follows a separate visit to Chapel Hill scheduled for earlier Tuesday at which Gov. Roy Cooper and town officials are expected to announce a new economic development project on West Franklin Street.
Both Forma-Fab Metals facilities are just east of Mebane and north of Orange County’s Buckhorn Economic Development District, a 1,200-acre area set aside for manufacturing, retail, distribution, wholesale and service uses. County and state tax incentives have lured other companies, including Japanese candy maker Morinaga American Foods, Swiss industrial equipment maker ABB, and medical supply company Medline Industries, to the Buckhorn area.
Piedmont Metalworks is a structural and sheet metal manufacturing company started in 2007 that does custom work, including the ticket counters and jetway entrances at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, as well as utility and food service metal pieces for contractors, manufacturers and other industries.
Forma-Fab Metals, established in 1996, manufactures sheet metal enclosures, cabinets, housings, panels, brackets, racks, bus bars, and covers.
Jobs, investment, tax incentive
Richmond is expected to be at the public hearing, which starts at 7 p.m. in the Southern Human Services Center on Homestead Road in Chapel Hill.
The proposed incentive would reduce the new taxes by 75% that Piedmont Metalworks would pay on the new facility for five years, beginning in 2021. In return, the company would meet goals that provide the county with jobs and taxable investment.
Piedmont Metalworks would agree to build a 40,000-square-foot production space beside the Forma-Fab Metals building on U.S. 70 and add 42 jobs at the new location, including 12 jobs transferred from Durham.
The average annual salary would be $19.83 an hour, plus benefits, county staff reported. The company has 68 employees now between the Forma-Fab Metals locations. Those facilities are assessed now at $2.9 million for property taxes
Forma-Fab Metals’ 75,000 square foot Orange County operation is now valued for property taxes and personal taxes — equipment, inventory and other fixtures — at $2.9 million. County staff reported the new operation could add roughly $3 million in property value and another $1.1 million in personal property tax value over the first five years.
The project is anticipated to bring the county $188,448 in new tax revenues over the first 10 years.
The county can reduce the annual tax incentive if Piedmont Metalworks misses a goal.
What’s next
The Orange County Board of Commissioners will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19, in the Southern Human Services Center, 2501 Homestead Road in Chapel Hill.
The meeting will include a public hearing on the tax incentives for Piedmont Metalworks LLC and other issues, including a look at the remediation work proposed for the county’s Link Government Services Center on South Cameron Street in Hillsborough.
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 5:58 AM.
