Overview:

• Pay would be $60,000 to $80,000

• $22 million expansion would be built on Shaw Mill Road

• The Fayetteville City Council is offering an additional $327,487 grant

• The state may also offer incentives to attract the project

The SteelFab Inc. plant on Country Club Drive in Fayetteville, on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. Credit: Paul Woolverton / CityView

The Cumberland County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to offer a $363,550 grant to SteelFab Inc., a steel fabrication company, to persuade it to bring 42 jobs to Fayetteville.

Code-named “Project Superman,” the $22 million plant expansion would be added to SteelFab’s operation on Country Club Drive near Murchison Road, where it has 58 employees in the former Hercules Steel plant. Hercules Steel, which was founded in Fayetteville in 1954, sold the facility to SteelFab in October 2021.

The county’s grant offer is in addition to $327,487 that the Fayetteville City Council approved on Sept. 22. The two grants total about $691,000. The state could also offer incentives, said Robert Van Geons, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corp.

Van Geons told CityView he is hopeful that the company behind Project Superman will decide in the next quarter where to build the expansion. Fayetteville is competing against locations in Virginia and South Carolina, he said.

A map showing the proposed location for a $22 million expansion of SteelFab Inc.’s operations in Fayetteville. This is on Shaw Mill Road near Murchison Road. SteelFab’s current campus (not shown) is to the southeast on Country Club Drive. Credit: Screencap from Fayetteville City Council agenda materials

“This would develop a 75-acre undeveloped tract, add an additional 42 full-time employees, with an average salary around $66,700,” Van Geons told the county commissioners. “They range between roughly $60,000 to $80,000.”

The $22 million would be spent toward new buildings and equipment, he said. This would be on Shaw Mill Road a short distance from the existing SteelFab operation.

The grant would be paid out across five years, Van Geons said, and would never exceed how much the company pays in property taxes.

“Each year, they must perform in order to receive the incentive,” he said.

SteelFab’s website says the company has 15 fabrication facilities and 17 offices operating in 13 states from coast to coast.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.

Did you find this story useful or interesting? It was made possible by donations from readers like you to the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation so CityView can bring you more news and information like this.

Paul Woolverton is CityView's senior reporter, covering courts, local politics, and Cumberland County affairs. He joined CityView from The Fayetteville Observer, where he worked for more than 30 years.