RALEIGH, N.C. — Nine small-town and county projects across North Carolina are getting state help, after the Rural Infrastructure Authority approved $2,236,000 in grants tied to 219 jobs, Gov. Josh Stein announced Thursday.
Of those jobs, 141 had already been announced. The projects are expected to draw more than $504 million in private investment, most of it from a single deal in Wilson, where a $500,000 grant will help renovate a 310,000-square-foot building for Reckitt Benckiser, maker of Mucinex. That project carries 112 jobs and $432.6 million in investment tied to the grant, out of 289 jobs planned overall.
Six of the awards came through the Building Reuse Program. Beyond Wilson, they include $129,000 for a Shelby building for a maker of safety gear for utility workers, $152,000 for a Fayetteville railroad products manufacturer, $50,000 toward MJM Yachts in Washington, $80,000 for an Edgecombe Furniture expansion in Greenville and $144,000 for a paper products plant expansion in Henderson.
Building Reuse grants carry strings. Local governments must put up a dollar-for-dollar cash match, an award can never cover more than half of the renovation or construction cost, and the money has to be paid back if the promised jobs are not created and kept for six straight months during the two-year grant period. The authority awards projects at six meetings a year.
Two smaller awards target downtowns: $81,000 for a new roof on the Clinton Theatre in Sampson County and $100,000 for sidewalks and accessibility work around the Elkin Public Library in Surry County. The largest single grant, $1 million from the Industrial Development Fund Utility Account, will pay for water and sewer upgrades at an industrial park in Scotland County for a Great Southern Wood Preserving lumber treatment plant, a $40 million project with 29 jobs tied to the grant.
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