Lockheed Martin could add 3,000 jobs in Georgia
A major defense company received Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Thursday to thank him for a new tax break that could be worth more than $ 50 million.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed and the Republican governor signed a bill that would extend tax breaks for “major aerospace” projects in hopes of receiving an offer for new defense projects at Lockheed Martin Corp. operated plant Marietta.
Then rep. Bert Reeves told lawmakers at the time that Maryland’s Lockheed Martin was hoping to bid to build a new generation of military jets in whole or in part at the Cobb County plant, which opened for bomber construction in 1943 and was acquired by Lockheed in 1951. Today, the 4,500-employee complex builds C-130J military transport aircraft and assembles fuselages for F-35 fighters that will be completed elsewhere.
Lockheed Martin officials were less specific about their plans for next Thursday, saying they hoped to bid on any new defense work that would boost employment in Marietta. She and Kemp announced that the company added 150 people to a branch of the Lockheed development team called “skunk works” over the past year.
Kemp said future Lockheed projects could create up to 3,000 jobs and $ 1.6 billion in investment.
The law allows Lockheed Martin to claim up to $ 100 million in state income tax credits on investments as long as it invests at least $ 800 million, as well as claiming Georgia’s job tax credits on all new jobs created. Before Kemp signed the bill, Lockheed was limited to either $ 50 million in investment tax credits or payroll tax credits.
“It helps us compete for these jobs and the economic impact that it has and the backlog you have on other manufacturing and residual jobs is just incredible,” Kemp told reporters afterward.
Alabama plant creates 200 jobs
A cabinet factory in eastern Alabama is planning a $ 15 million expansion that will create more than 200 new jobs, Governor Kay Ivey’s office said Thursday.
Wellborn Cabinet Inc., a family-owned company that already employs more than 1,300 people in rural Clay County, will add four buildings to its Ashland facility, which makes bathroom and kitchen cabinets. The project includes a mill, paint shop, daycare center and health facilities.
Ivey and other officials joined the company to break ground at Wellborn Cabinet, the county’s largest industrial employer and a leading US cabinet maker. It started in Clay County six decades ago.
The expansion should be completed in 2022.
Tyson expands to Virginia
Tyson Foods will invest $ 300 million to build a manufacturing facility in Virginia’s Pittsylvania County, a project that is expected to create 376 new jobs, Governor Ralph Northam announced Thursday.
The Arkansas-based company plans a 325,000 square foot (30,200 square meter) facility in the Cane Creek Center, an industrial park jointly owned by the county and the city of Danville, and is committed to raising 60 million pounds (27 million kilograms) of in Virginia will be growing chicken for the next three years, officials said in a statement.
Virginia competed with North Carolina for the project.
“Tyson Foods has been a major Virginia employer for more than five decades and continues to grow with this new Danville-Pittsylvania County operation that is creating hundreds of quality jobs for the citizens of Southern Virginia,” Northam said in a statement. “We look forward to many successful years.”
Matt Rowe, district director of economic development, said average annual salaries for the positions will be well above the prevailing average wage in the district of approximately $ 40,000 to $ 45,000, Danville Register & Bee reported.
Tyson makes ready-to-eat foods, including any’tizer snacks and chicken nuggets. Raw products will be brought into the facility, Rowe said, emphasizing that it will not be a slaughterhouse.
Headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, Tyson employs more than 2,000 people in its hatcheries, grain and processing operations across Virginia – in the Richmond area of Henrico County and on the state’s east coast.
– Compiled by Dave Flessner
