BOC approves impact fee waiver for corporate park building
The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed at its Dec. 16 meeting to waive $17,289 in impact fees for a manufacturer eyeing the Cherokee 75 Corporate Park. Rooker is looking to construct a 30,000-square-foot building on 4.2 acres to accommodate MSK Covertech, a manufacturer of packaging and industrial automation equipment.
“The Impact Fees Appeal Board voted 4-0 to recommend the approval,” said County Manager Jerry Cooper.
The proposed building will be used as the North American headquarters for MSK Covertech, and Cherokee Office of Economic Development (COED) President Misti Martin, in a letter to Cooper, said the construction of the building would result in a capital investment of $2.7 million.
The 30,000-square-foot building is expected to meet the high-market demand for this product, and officials said Cherokee County was in need of a building this size.
According to the COED, there have been more than 2,500 searches for buildings and land within Cherokee this year alone. Eighty-eight percent of those searches were for buildings.
The BOC, in November, fully exempted Rooker from paying more than $175,000 in impact fees for a 304,000-square-foot speculation building in the Cherokee 75 Corporate Park. Cooper said the building being constructed for MSK Covertech is not an expansion to the spec building.
“The waived impact fees was for a new 30,000-square-foot building to be located in the Cherokee 75 Corporate Park,” Cooper clarified after the meeting.
In similar business, the commission also exempted Reeves Floral Products from paying $21,840 in impact fees for a 50,000-square-foot addition to its current warehouse in the Airport Commerce Center. This expanded warehouse building is designed to allow the longtime county business to move some of their operations from North Carolina to Cherokee County.
Martin said the expansion of the building would result in a capital investment of $2.13 million and result in job creation/retention of 30-plus jobs. The Impact Fees Appeals Board also recommended approval of this request.
The commission also unanimously approved reimbursing the Cherokee Office of Economic Development $1.59 million for the purchase of 28.93 acres to expand Cherokee 75 Corporate Park.
Officials said COED has an option to purchase the land before Jan. 14 for $55,000 per acre. That price will increase to $65,000 per acre after the Jan. 14 deadline.
“The corporate park is going very well. There are a couple contracts pending, and it also looks promising that Cherokee Office of Economic Development will not be holding this property very long,” Cooper said. “We will be paid back for the sale of the land in the future when the closings occur. The recommendation is to use the remaining $1.4 million from the sales tax program, and also transfer ($200,000) from the Towne Lake Parkway paving project that was $1 million under budget.”
BOC Chairman Buzz Ahrens said the property the COED is eyeing is immediately adjacent to the rounded 100 acres that the development authority purchased as an opportunity zone, adding that it is about 2 miles east on the intersection of Interstate 75 and Ga. 92.
“They have had so much interest in that area because of the Department of Community Affairs opportunity zone benefits of tax credits,” Ahrens said. “It is really moving, but it has been interesting to see the different types of businesses interested in being there.”
Cooper said he anticipates at least two closings next year.
Click here to view this article in its entirety from Cherokee Ledger News.