SALISBURY — The Rowan County Board of Commissioners approved a tax incentive package on Monday for a company looking to expand into East Spencer, a move that could bring 29 jobs and more than $1 million in property investments to the area.

The company was code-named Project Secure and described by Rowan EDC Vice-President Scott Shelton as an internationally-known manufacturer that has been in its industry since the 1930s. He said that the company is looking to expand its operations into the Charlotte region, a search that has included the Rusher Farms Commerce Center, located on Andrews Street near Interstate 85 in East Spencer.

“It’s good to see East Spencer now in the game,” said Board Chairman Greg Edds.

The company was eligible for a level one incentive, which provides a 40-percent tax return. That number is decided by the county’s tax incentive policy, which outlines requirements any prospective company would need to meet to receive certain incentives, with one being the lowest tier.

The company received a point for paying between 90 percent to 110 percent of the county’s average wage at an average salary of $51,000, a point due to advanced manufacturing being one of the county’s targeted industries and a point for providing health insurance and paying at least 50 percent of the monthly premiums. Shelton said that while the company’s salary proposal was just below the county’s average of $52,000, it was higher than the average manufacturing salary in the county.

The company would plan to have a location chosen and be in operation by June 30, 2025, said Shelton. The current proposal indicates that the company would add 19 new full-time employees during the first fiscal year, and add two or three positions every year until topping out at 29 new employees during the fifth fiscal year.

The company would be paying 33 percent of the taxes on the building, said Shelton, so the 40 percent return would apply to that share as well as to the taxes on the $1 million in personal property investments. The two add up to represent approximately $32,000 in tax revenue before the grant, with the grant reducing the county’s actual revenue to approximately $19,000 for the five fiscal years the incentives would be in effect. In total, the proposed grant represented $64,592 in incentives.

Shelton said that East Spencer already had “skin in the game,” having issued a grant for the developer, Tectonic Real Estate, to relocate and connect to a “major” Salisbury-Rowan Utilities sewer line.

“We think that getting a tenant in one of these buildings will spur interest in the remaining portion. Then, after that’s done, there will be a larger building going up…,” said Shelton.

The incentives agreement would represent a culmination of years of work by East Spencer, the county, Tectonic, the EDC and the Rusher family, who originally owned a farm on the land.

The EDC began discussions in 2016 with Robert Rusher and his sister Dixie Cauble, which led to the Rushers asking for East Spencer to annex the property and agreeing to sell it to Tectonic in 2022, with Rusher saying he wanted the development to benefit the community the family loved.

Unfortunately, Cauble died in 2020 and Rusher died last year, but Shelton and Edds both said that they appreciated that the name of the park, Rusher Farms, cemented the family’s legacy in the community.

After the discussion and a public hearing, the commissioners voted unanimously to approve the incentives package for Project Secure.