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Chester County, South Carolina, Working on Deal That Could Create 1,500 Jobs

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Governor of South Carolina

Chester County, South Carolina is in the process of negotiating a ‘game-changing’ deal with a company that could invest $560 million and bring 1,500 jobs to the county, according to The Charlotte Observer.

Should the deal be finalized, the job creation and investment of the company would be the largest in Chester County in almost 30 years. It would also be larger than some recent projects in Lancaster and York counties.

“We’ve never had an industrial prospect this big in the 32 years I’ve been county administrator,” said Chester County supervisor Carlisle Roddey. “This will change the landscape of Chester County.”

Roddey said that residents of Chester County “will have a chance to compete for great-paying jobs.

There have been very few details about the plan released to the public. Roddey and state Rep. Ralph Norman, from Rock Hill, said that the deal involves a manufacturing plant. The location for the company was not released.

The president of the Chester County Chamber of Commerce, Jim Fuller, said that right now there are four locations in the county that can hold as project of this size. Fuller said that one site is the 1,438 acre ‘mega site’ off of Interstate 77. Norman did go as far to say that the company compares with other industries in the region.

Roddey did mention that the company fits into the state’s plan to redevelop I-77 from Columbia to Rock Hill, turning it into a manufacturing corridor. Karlisa Parker, the Chester County economic development official, said that officials have been working on the project for a little over a year.

Initial approval was provided by the Chester County Council on Monday for an ordinance that allows a fee-in-lieu-of tax arrangement to go along with a special source revenue credit. Both of these will drop the tax liability for the company.

The ordinance has to be approved by the county council twice before it can be activated. The second reading for the ordinance is scheduled for May 19 and a final reading is scheduled for June 2. The county would like to release the name of the company during the third reading, but this will be decided by the company and not the county.

If the deal is finalized, it could drop unemployment rates that are some of the highest in the state.

The county has an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent and it is the 11th-highest in South Carolina of 46 counties. The 1,500 jobs would be very welcome.

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Chester County, South Carolina, Working on Deal That Could Create 1,500 Jobs by
Authored by: Jim Vassallo