Sandwich manufacturer brings $37.9 million facility, 300 jobs to Greenwood
After 18 months of sitting empty, the North Greenwood Industrial Park now has a tenant that will bring in the most new jobs Greenwood County has seen in years.
At Tuesday’s Greenwood County Council meeting, council voted to approve final reading of a fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement with E.A. Sween Co., a Minnesota-based manufacturer of prepackaged sandwiches. The company, formerly identified as Project River, has agreed to buy the speculative building the county constructed with Capital Project Sales Tax funds in the North Greenwood Industrial Park.
E.A. Sween will spend $37.95 million to expand its manufacturing operations to Greenwood County, creating 300 jobs at the new location. When Teijin Carbon Fibers brought its $600 million facility to Greenwood in 2016, it created 220 jobs. Colgate-Palmolive’s investment in 2013 came with an estimated 270 jobs.
“Our team members are our biggest and most valuable asset, and as we come into your community we hope that you feel that way as we begin to hire your talent into our organization,” said Kristi Broadwater, head of human resources at E.A. Sween.
The company’s origins trace back to 1955, when Earl August Sween started a sandwich company franchise in Minnesota, eventually growing and moving the operation to its current home in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. E.A. Sween cut ties with the company it originally franchised from in 1980, and today makes the Deli Express brand of prepackaged sandwiches sold in convenience stores for decades. The facility in Greenwood will produce about 75 million sandwiches a year once operating at full capacity, Broadwater said.
The county’s incentive agreement with Sween includes a 30-year agreement to lock the property’s millage at 6% of its assessed value in the industrial park. The agreement also includes a 65% special source revenue tax credit for years one through five of the project, then a 50% SSRC for years six through 10.
Sween will be moving into the building constructed speculatively at 5730 U.S. Highway 25, which was built without a planned occupant. The county’s plan for the spec building was to have it as a site to show industries interested in coming to Greenwood County.
The North Greenwood Industrial Park was started with funds from the 2016 Capital Project Sales Tax, with $4 million going into the first building, which was completed in November 2020.
“I owe you a personal debt of gratitude, because all of those people who, when four year ago I was insisting we build that building were telling me I was crazy,” Council member Theo Lane said. “So thank you.”
The 100,000 square-foot building has knock-out panels on an exterior wall, allowing it to be opened up for an expansion that could double its size. Other accommodations were made at the site to allow the company that eventually moved in to expand on what was built.
The building — just north of Symrise Pet Foods, Colgate-Palmolive and Caterpillar — has another $4.4 million of CPST funds going into it in 2024. County officials have shared the goal of the North Greenwood Industrial Park is to continue expanding it by using the funds from selling this first building to pay for construction of the next speculative site.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on:May 17, 2022
By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!