North Carolina will not be home to Caterpillar's latest U.S. plant.
Caterpillar Inc. said Friday it had chosen a site near Athens, Ga., for the $200 million manufacturing plant. Sites in North Carolina that included Wilmington and Cumberland County were reported to have been in the running.
The company said in November that it was shifting some production from Japan to be closer to its customer base in North America and Europe. It will build small track-type tractors and mini-hydraulic excavators at the 1 million-square-foot plant.
Doug Oberhelman, chairman and chief executive officer of Caterpillar, said the Athens plant is part of the company "making a series of significant investments around the world to position Caterpillar to maintain its leadership position."
Caterpillar is eligible for up to $45 million in state incentives, including job tax credits and a project development grant, according to Alison Tyrer, communications director for Georgia's Department of Economic Development.
Alan Reddish, manager of Athens/Clark County Unified Government, said its government body and neighboring Oconee County are sharing the cost of paying $9.5 million for the plant site, $6.7 million in property preparation costs and $1.5 million in water and sewer costs. Caterpillar is also expected to receive $15 million in property tax abatement over 20 years.
By comparison, Caterpillar opened an 850,000-square-foot axle plant in Winston-Salem last fall that cost $426 million to build. It is eligible for about $50 million in N.C. incentives and $23.5 million in local incentives. The current workforce of 103 full-time and 99 contract employees represents 40 percent of 510 jobs pledged.
Caterpillar had said it preferred to build the tractor and excavator plant near its building and construction products division headquarters in Cary.
"The Athens site was selected from among dozens of locations considered due to its proximity to the major ports of Savannah and Charleston, a strong regional base of potential suppliers, a positive and pro-active business climate and a good pool of potential employees with manufacturing experience," said Mary Bell, a vice president with the Caterpillar division.
John H. Boyd, a principal in The Boyd Co. Inc., a site-location consulting company in New Jersey, said Caterpillar has become "heavily invested" in North Carolina in recent years and "may have tapped out there in terms of incentives and good will."
Officials with the N.C. Commerce Department could not be reached for comment about whether negotiations with Caterpillar progressed enough that a state incentive package was offered.
State Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, said deficiencies at the port in Wilmington might have made the N.C. sites less attractive. State Rep. Dewey Hill, D-Durham, said Georgia's tax code might also have played a role in Caterpillar's decision.
"A company like Caterpillar, which does a lot of exporting, they're not looking at incentives," Hill said. "They're looking at infrastructure, tax structure and everything else."
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