By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com
The first major economic development competition so far in 2024 seems to have come down to sites in each of the Carolinas, and we should know soon whether Sanford and Lee County, or another location believed to be in South Carolina, will be selected for an international company to build and operate a new pharmaceuticals plant that represents an investment of almost $200 million.
The Sanford City Council used their Tuesday night meeting to follow an action taken the night before by the Lee County Board of Commissioners, both approving incentives packages in hopes of closing a deal that would bring this major, but as yet unknown, pharmaceutical company to Sanford in the coming months.
Together, the two local incentive packages total just over $8.5 million. The county’s share would be $4.7 million, and the city would add another $3.86 million, and these would be in addition to still another yet undisclosed amount from the state to bring the company’s operations to North Carolina. Both the city and the county indicated their contributions would come from available balances in their general funds, not requiring any reallocation from line items already budgeted.
These local funds contributed by the county and the city would go specifically toward the purchase of land, the building of a facility, and the purchase of machinery and equipment that would be used by the company in its Sanford operations.
The project, known today only by its N.C. Department of Commerce code name of BioBloom, is described in documents posted on local government websites as a “pharmaceutical research and product manufacturing company.” In those records, the company proposes to create more than 100 new full-time jobs at its Sanford location with an average salary of $91,496.
The minimum annual wage for the company’s lowest-paying jobs is estimated to be around $60,000 and it aims to hit its target of hiring more than 100 workers within the first three years.
Jimmy Randolph, CEO of the Sanford Area Growth Alliance, presented draft resolutions to authorize the support of the county commissioners and the city council on consecutive evenings. These agreements recognize the company’s net tax base investments in Sanford and Lee County projected to be at least $190 million, and they would also authorize cash grant incentives to Project BioBloom toward costs of developing the project over the next seven years, based on the net new taxable value of the facility in each year.
The incentives would be based on 80 percent of the property’s ad valorem, or property, taxable value in years one and two, 70 percent in years three and four, and 60 percent in years five, six and seven.
Randolph said at the city council meeting that both the council and the commissioners believe the two investments “will stimulate the local economy and business activity, add to the tax base, create jobs, and increase payroll in Sanford and Lee County.”
It would be easy to see these types of incentives awarded by the city and the county as little more than cash payouts sent to Project BioBloom for the next seven years as a reward for coming here. But it’s important to see these actions by Sanford and Lee County through the lens of how economic development works in the 21st century.
The types of agreements approved by the city and the county are performance-based incentives, and Project BioBloom must meet the benchmarks required by the contracts before any payments are made by Sanford or Lee County.
That means that the facility must be constructed as described, the agreed-upon number of jobs must be created and filled, the machinery and equipment would be purchased and installed, and their property taxes paid before any checks are written to cover the incentives agreed to in the documents authorized in February. These types of agreements are used commonly today in the economic development world.
Lee County Manager Lisa Minter reminded the commissioners that the process is all about accountability and put it in even simpler terms.
“They have to pay their taxes into the county before we pay anything out,” she said.
If the company fails to meet one of its benchmark targets – like the number of people hired, for example – then the amount of the incentive it would receive for that year would be adjusted downward.
Much of the heavy lifting that is part and parcel to economic development takes place outside of the public eye, and it’s only as the process nears its end that the public gets a chance to see the kind of sustained hard work and effort that is required of a team to get this far in the process and make it to the Final Two, even by a team with a track record of successes like Sanford and Lee County have become famous for.
Democratic County Commissioner Cameron Sharpe pointed out the commissioners had actually not been asked to go as far as the $4.7 million, but said the commissioners had done so because they wanted to demonstrate the county’s belief in the company’s plans that will ultimately make it successful in central North Carolina.
Sanford Mayor Rebecca Wyhof Salmon took a moment to recognize those efforts that have resulted in an incredible string of success stories in recent years, made by some of those team members who maintained a level of secrecy that kept them from discussing their work even amongst their own families.
“We have been working as an economic development team in our community for quite some time,” she said. “It’s very exciting that we are in this position to be able to make an incentive offer at this time for this project.”
Randolph said the county’s economic development team has been working with BioBloom for almost a year now.
“This project came to us in May of last year as an opportunity, and we had our first site visit in June,” he said. “They visited 12 communities across North Carolina in June of last year. We stand here today, believing that we are the last candidate in North Carolina, competing with a candidate in South Carolina. The type of environment that you have created here for this kind of advanced manufacturing opportunity has generated a tremendous amount of momentum, and a tremendous amount of credibility, that will potentially allow us, if BioBloom were to locate here, to continue to attract just these types of high-paying, high-quality, and cutting-edge advanced manufacturing jobs that will benefit our residents far into the future.”
Central Carolina Community College Dr. Lisa Chapman was in the audience at Monday’s county commissioners meeting, ready to speak to any questions that might arise about the college’s ability to train workers for jobs in the biotechnology fields.
But none were asked, in part, because Randolph cited CCCC, as he often does, as one of the best tools today in the economic development toolbox used by SAGA as it works with businesses and industries that demonstrate an interest in coming here.
Thank you for an informative and well-written news article that addresses the issue and proactively gives answers to questions that might arise!
And what is this manufacturing plant going to dump into our drinking water? Sanford has already shown that it is going to do exactly nothing to protect the local drinking water from whatever these factories decide to dump into it.
Another one? Why do we need these evil companies here in Lee County and in Sanford? We have Pfizer, they lied about the jab, yes they did. And, who knows what they are doing at the Astellas Gene Therapies, that I think Pfizer bought, don’t need anymore things in sanford and lee county until the water situation is fixed. NO more, you can’t handle water, electric and cable for all of this. Sometimes growing too fast in a small space is too much. Clean up the OLD warehouses. Or at least have them torn down. Look around at all the “empty buildings, we don’t need anymore.
They’re not going to fix the water situation. They are planning to run the water through some charcoal and call it a day. That didn’t fix Pittsboro’s water and it’s not going to fix Sanford’s water. The only solution, besides making the factories stop dumping chemicals into the river, is reverse osmosis, but Sanford is too cheap for that. They would rather we all die of cancer than spend the money to provide clean drinking water.
Wow, someone turned loose the morons
I assume you’re speaking of yourself.
The only thing these people can do is call us names. We have the truth and God on our side. There are more “good” people out there, then the “Bad” and the “ugly”. Evil people tend to look ugly on the outside, because evil eats away at the inside of you.
EO 13848
Connie: what’s truly crazy is that the problems with the water are PUBLISHED on the website of the Sanford water authority. It’s all public and readily available. There are movies about these specific chemicals in our water: Dark Waters with Mike Rufalo (yes, the Incredible Hulk from the Marvel movies). So these people could choose to Google it and educate themselves, or turn on Netflix and educate themselves, OR just call us crazy and buy another coffee from the local Starbucks (made with local tap water). Guess what this brainiac chose?
just wondering…has “V” stood before City Council and voiced the concerns that “V’ has
They already know. They just aren’t going to do anything about it other than start running the water through some charcoal staring 3-4 years from now, which won’t really do the trick. Personally I’m getting the hell out of here, so this isn’t going to be my problem much longer. But I find it interesting that Pittsboro is suing the companies polluting the Haw river, while Sanford is just inviting them on in to pollute the Deep River instead.
the Sanford city council is a big joke. When we first moved here, I watched the city council on TV. I stopped watching after I saw one meeting where the city council voted on something BEFORE the people were let to speak. The people were there to speak about the SPECIFIC THING THEY VOTED FOR THAT THOSE PEOPLE WHO WERE PRESENT THERE THAT DAY DIDN’T WANT!!!!
Crimes against humanity. There is and EO where these people will lose EVERYTHING, those who committed crimes against humanity. Now, go look at all the high-end homes that are up for sale all over the state of North Carolina. Sanford is a good ole boy, Mafia town, and soon judgement is coming. I used to help with voting. Watched a full bus load of people being “instructed” how to vote in the parking lot. Watching a woman with a Hillary hat talking to those people voting in their cars. Linda Swope, yes, that far back, wasn’t happy when people switched parties in 2006 from Democrat to Republican, because she KNEW what was going on. Democrats (as a Republican) in the primaries would vote for the worst Republican, and then in the general could vote democrat. It doesn’t work in reverse because there aren’t any good democrats. I bring this up, because you brought up the city council, which is a joke!!!
The ignorance on display with some of these comments is remarkable. Greensboro, Winston Salem, Burlington, Siler City, Asheboro, Mebane, Durham, Chapel Hill, and Cary all discharge treated sewage into the Haw, Deep, Rocky, and New Hope Basins. All four then flow into the Cape Fear River where the City taps it at NC 42. These are heavily monitored point source discharges so that doesn’t account for anyone who backs a truck up to a creek dumps something.
The chemicals V is bleating about have been pumped into the overall environment steadily for the last 50 years, but for some reason only the City of Sanford is remise for not correcting and reversing US Clean Water Policy.
Makes you wonder what his personal gripe is against the City. They must have run over his mail box with a leaf and limb truck.
Sanford water is worse. It is worse than Pittsboro. It is worse than Durham. It is worse than any other place around here until you start getting near Fayetteville. It is not because of someone dumping chemicals off of a pick up truck. It is in part from a landfill upriver that oozes leachate into the Deep River. But it is mostly from factories in Sanford itself. Sanford’s waste-water pipe is upstream from its water-intake pipe, so we drink our own effluent. Sanford knowingly pollutes its own drinking water. None is this is secret. It’s anll out in the open. But no level of government here wants to do anything about it.
hey “v” I have searched on line for the link to the “Sanford water authority” I can’t pull it up. Can you provide a link to this report??
Go to this page, scroll to the bottom and click the blue link labeled “View Most Recent Report”
https://sanfordnc.net/543/Annual-Water-Quality-Report
Thank you. I used to do water desalination aboard ships. RO is the way to do it.
“v” you state that our water is worse than Pittsboro so guess what…an article from 08-09-23 from the Rant says on 06-30-24 the City of Sanford will be providing water to Pittsboro
Yep, we are going to sell water to Pittsboro, Fuquay, Holly Springs and maybe a few other places.
The Deep River only supplies about 40.7% of the total flow to the Cape Fear River between McKay Island and NC 42 where the City sucks in raw water. About 42% comes from the Haw River. Another 11.7% comes from old New Hope River (Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary), the last bit of 5.7% comes from the Rocky River that rises in Liberty and runs through Siler City. Of course, by the time any of it gets to Sanford, 3 million people have used it at least once.
Just think if you lived in Wilmington, NC.
When republicans took over the NC Legislature in 2010 they spent a couple of million dollars putting solar bees in Jordan lake so the water would not stagnate. They were told a real cleanup and pollution prevention project would be in the multi millions of dollars. Spending money on enviromental projects isn’t in the republican playbook since it would get in the way of tax cuts. I remember when in the 90s Sanford Finishing would get fined by the City of Sanford for dumping too much of the chemicals they used in the sewage system. I’m sure there were plenty of other polluters. We need to demand our local, state, and federal elected officials to keep our water safe and clean. We should be thankful that fracking never got off the ground or we would also be talking about contaminated private wells.
At this point I would welcome them at least telling people to stop drinking the water. It’s really just not safe to drink and people should know that.
For those of you people who are against “V”, IF you live in the city, and get your water FROM the city, go have it tested outside any Democrat area. It can’t go through a filter in your refrigerator or sink. Straight from the tap. There is so much out there that isn’t good for you, the list is long. I am 65 years old, and I look better than some of the 30-year-olds that eat fast food, or processed food 24/7/365.
Do we get something new or fix the stuff we already have here? It’s up to you to shout it at the top of the roof. How about just the city police? Cars that work, would be nice, pay the police MORE. Get some FRESH blood in that building.
V it must kill you that the company is coming here and will be using the water. The kind of water you want requires you to go to Avery or Mitchell County. Of course, make sure you steer clear of any of that water that has been contaminated by gold, copper, or kaolin.
Connie, getting the water cleaned up will cost money. No way the republicans in charge of North Carolina will ever spend the kind of funds needed to truly clean our water sources. Heck, the longtime dictator of the Lee County Republican Party, Jim Womack, tried his best to get oil and gas companies to frack the heck out of Lee County. Be thankful he wasn’t successful in that endeavor.
You are right. It would be much cheaper to keep industry from polluting the water in the first place. But they won’t do that either. By next year new EPA rules should come into effect setting limits for 3 PFAS chemicals but industry will just substitute other PFAS chemicals that are just as bad and continue on like before.
Really? That’s the first thing Trump ran on, “clean water and clean air”. Of course, the fake news wanted you to hate him so you did what you were told and didn’t listen to what he had to say. Why don’t you talk to the EV people…where do you get those batteries from, and what are they made of and where do they get what they are made of. Why don’t you look to see how they get lithium out of the ground???
oil and natural gas isn’t the problem, you fool. I’m surprised you didn’t use the words, “fossil fuels”, the Rockefellers wanted people to think we were going to run out of oil. I hate to tell the ladies out there how much oil or petroleum is in your make-up and many other products. Jimmy Carter told me in 1978 that we were running out of oil. When? We have plenty, but “Let’s Go Brandon” stopped drilling!!!
DRILL BABY DRILL. Get educated before you start throwing things out there. And the EV’s are still using MY Nuclear Power Plant, EV’s should HAVE TO use solar, wind, or water power to charge those batteries are it’s all just pretend.
Connie old girl, you are so far off base. Republicans are for deregulating everything. That includes regulations for industry that pollutes our water. “The Supreme Court took a hammer to the Clean Water Act with its decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), stripping federal protections from countless wetlands and leaving these critical ecosystems exposed to devastating pollution and other damage from agriculture and other industries”. That is Trumps Supreme Court. You need to change the channel/station and educate yourself.