ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Board of Commissioners will vote Tuesday on an economic incentive agreement for a proposed data center following a public hearing.
Per the agreement, included in the agenda packet for the meeting, the county will provide the company —referred to by the code name “Project Blue Marlin” — an “annual economic development incentive in the form of cash grants to be paid from any lawfully available funds not otherwise restricted.”
The cash grants — equal to the sum of 50% of the annual ad valorem property tax and 65% of the annual personal property tax paid to the county — for each building will be paid annually for 20 years, according to the agreement.
Those payments will be made within 90 days of the company’s request.
The company must make at least $1 billion in capital investment and provide for 50 full-time jobs by Dec. 31, 2030, according to the agreement. If the company fails to do so, it must repay the county “an amount equal to all Grant Payments made to date,” and the county may terminate the agreement.
If the company ceases active datacenter operations, including construction of buildings, at the site for more than a year “other than for temporary purposes,” the company will have to repay the prior year’s grants and the county may suspend future payments.
The agreement states the company plans to make more than $10 billion in capital investments.
The project site map is blank in the agenda packet.
However, last month, the board approved the conveyance of nearly 700 acres in the Energy Way Industrial Complex — one main parcel at 646.866 acres, and the other two just more than 25 acres each — for Project Blue Marlin at a purchase price of $26,097,810.
That purchase agreement was signed in mid-March.
During the May meeting, commissioners also approved two other land conveyances.
The first is for roughly 50 acres (a former chicken farm) at 972 Louis Breeden Blvd. in Hamlet. However, there are no support documents included in the agenda related to that sale.
The other is for roughly 89 acres in the Richmond County Industrial Park to North State Processing, LLC for $8,907.
According to its website, North State Processing is “a highly automated state-of-the-art facility focusing on modern technology and process-driven operations to create highly efficient, repeatable, and quality-focused products.” Those products include sheep, goat, cattle, bison, water buffalo, emu, alpaca and ostrich meat.
President and CEO Robert F. Spivey Jr. lives in West End, according to the company’s website.
In another agenda item related to economic development, the board will decide whether or not to award the contract for Energy Way sewer improvements to Wadesboro-based S&L Contracting, which had the lowest bid of $4,494,001.40.
Other items on Tuesday’s agenda include:
The board meets at 5:30 p.m. in Courtroom C of the Richmond County Judicial Complex.
