Residents can tell the Fayetteville City Council on Tuesday what they think of a plan to refund tens of millions of city property taxes to a $1.3 billion titanium reclamation plant if it opens in the city.
The city council has a public hearing and vote scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall on whether to offer the tax rebate to American Titanium Metal LLC as an inducement to persuade the company to build its plant in Fayetteville. The company is considering multiple states for this project. Locally, it’s known as “Project Aero.”
The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners on May 20 approved a similar rebate on the plant’s county property taxes. And on May 6, the commissioners gave preliminary approval to allow the Cumberland County Industrial Facility and Pollution Control Financing Authority to issue $1.3 billion in bonds to pay for the project.
Under the terms, the county government and taxpayers would not be liable if American Titanium Metal defaults on the loans.
Legal notices and other records about the incentives say the company plans to invest $895 million and employ 300 people by 2028 with an average salary of $120,000. That’s $36 million in wages. It could later expand to 450 people.
It would be built on 120 acres off Ramsey Street and near the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. tire factory.
Officials with American Titanium Metal on Thursday declined an interview request with CityView, said Robert Van Geons, the president and CEO of the Fayetteville Cumberland Economic Development Corporation. Van Geons is shepherding the effort by local officials to bring the plant to Fayetteville.
The company is looking at other locations in North Carolina and in other states, Van Geons said.
What is American Titanium Metal?
Publicly available information about the American Titanium Metal LLC is scarce. It incorporated in Delaware on Sept. 11, according to records with the Delaware Secretary of State.
Van Geons said he is familiar with the people behind the company.
“They’ve been involved in the industry for many, many, many years, in different segments of this,” he said. “From the construction side, to the production side, to the finance side, they have decades of experience.”
What will the plant do?
“Titanium is a very highly valued metal that is legitimately 100% recyclable,” Van Geons said. And when items are made from titanium — such as an airplane part or an artificial knee — there are leftover titanium scraps.
“That scrap has to be recycled or reclaimed prior to it being used for other parts,” he said. The scrap titanium will be blended at this plant with new titanium, he said, to be manufactured into other titanium items.
What is being offered to attract the company?
Fayetteville and Cumberland County are working to land the company.
Here is a summary of the incentives they are offering, according to legal notices published ahead of their public hearings on the project:
- The city and county would each spend $535,000 to provide water and sewer infrastructure.
- The city and county would buy the 120 acres needed for the project and give it to American Titanium Metal.
- When the plant’s property’s tax value passes $350 million, with at least 200 full-time equivalent employees, the city and county would rebate the company 65% of the property taxes it paid.
- When the tax value exceeds $500 million, and the company has at least 300 employees, the property tax rebate would rise to 75%.
- When the value exceeds $1 billion, and employment reaches 400, the company would have an 85% rebate on its property taxes.
At $1 billion dollars of property value, the plant’s tax bill to the city and county would total almost $13.4 million annually. The tax rebate would be $11.4 million.
The property tax rebates would end after 20 years, the legal notices say.
The state government could offer additional incentives, but there is no publicly available information on what is being considered. N.C. Dept. of Commerce spokesman David Rhoades said the state often offers grants to employers that bring new jobs. The grants are based on the amount of income taxes paid by their employees, he said, and are typically paid out over 12 years.
How to speak at the public hearing
People who wish to speak at the public hearing on Fayetteville’s incentive plan for American Titanium Metal need to sign up by 5 p.m. Tuesday, a city spokesman said. They can sign up online at this link. Or they can contact the city clerk at 910-433-1312 or pamelamegill@fayettevillenc.gov.
The hearing will be held at City Hall, 433 Hay St.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501c3 charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.
