State Commerce Secretary Harry Lightsey is seen during a ribbon cutting event in Columbia, South Carolina, on Thursday, May 12, 2022. To his left is former Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. (Photo by Travis Bell/STATEHOUSE CAROLINA/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s economic development agency is offering up $85 million to lure a new food or beverage company to Orangeburg County.
A legislative oversight panel gave the initial nod Wednesday on the incentive package for the unidentified company, referred to by the code name “Project Panther,” seeking to open a $400 million packaging and distribution facility on 918 acres south of the town of Orangeburg. The company has pledged to employ 400 South Carolinians.
The approval followed a permit request filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last July by the state Department of Commerce and the Orangeburg County Development Commission filed on behalf of the company.
The Corps must approve the group’s plans to fill in more than 7 acres of wetlands.
Plans show an initial phase on the south end of the site with future phases expanding to the north and east.
The massive site is near Orangeburg’s municipal airport as well as existing industry, including a Hill’s pet food plant, cable maker The Okonite Company, Indevco plastics, metal powder supplier Ecka Granules, and paving materials company Walker Emulsions.
Little else is known about the proposed new company as economic development officials negotiate a deal to bring the facility to the county midway between the state capital and the Lowcountry. Economic development officials did not say how much the proposed new jobs might pay.
As part of the package, the state is offering to cover the cost of:
Legislators made no comments about the funding.
SC is $150M over budget on promises it made to bring Scout Motors to the state
The pitch by the Commerce Department comes a week after the agency asked legislators to cover $150 million in cost overruns from another economic development package — that one offered to electric vehicle maker Scout Motors in March 2023.
The package must still go before the state’s five-member fiscal oversight board chaired by the governor.
That board’s next hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Orangeburg County continues to negotiate tax breaks and a lease deal with the option to buy for the company.
County council on Dec. 15 unanimously gave the deal the first of three required approvals, but officials have yet to make the details public.
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Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
