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Facility Size: 98,000 sq. ft. <br /> Type of Operation: Production of"Hi-Chew" <br /> Site Size: 21 Acres (Buckhorn EDD) <br /> The Company has not committed to making any additional investment at this time. However, <br /> an expansion may eventually occur, since the site acreage is large enough to allow for the <br /> facility to double. <br /> Competitive Issues <br /> Competitive Differences between the Finalist Sites: <br /> • The other finalist location near Atlanta offered numerous cost advantages to Morinaga, <br /> such as a lower-priced site, reduced state and local taxes, access roads & utilities to <br /> the site already in place, existing firms within an established business park, & a major <br /> airport with direct flights to Tokyo. <br /> • Utility lines & road access improvements required to make Orange County's site <br /> competitive & attract Morinaga will now make adjacent properties more developable, <br /> attractive, competitive, and appealing to future business prospects considering Orange <br /> County. <br /> Steve Brantley referring to the timeline slide and noted that NCDOT traffic counts <br /> estimate that the Mebane site has 92,000 cars passing by on a daily basis. He said this was a <br /> motivating factor in the decision to switch from the original site. <br /> He referred to the Investment Plans slide and said the potential $48 million investment <br /> number would make Morinaga the third largest corporate tax payer in the County. <br /> Craig Benedict reviewed the following portion of the PowerPoint presentation: <br /> Site Location <br /> Buckhorn Economic Development District: <br /> • 21.0-acre site is under option by Morinaga. <br /> • Near Ben Wilson Road & facing interstate 1-40/1-85; close to the Orange/Alamance <br /> county line. <br /> • Part of a larger tract of land rezoned by the BOCC in 2012 to Office/Institutional (0/1) to <br /> promote business recruitment. <br /> • Currently undeveloped with no infrastructure. <br /> • Private landowner has applied to the City of Mebane to have the site rezoned and <br /> annexed. <br /> Site Photo <br /> Planned Infrastructure to Site (photo) <br /> Infrastructure Funding <br /> Community Development Block Grant: <br /> N.C. Department of Commerce has ruled the project as eligible to apply for a CDBG, allowing <br /> reimbursement of up to 75%, or, $750,000 for the County's total site infrastructure <br /> improvement costs. County has a 25% co-pay. <br /> Grant criteria — at least 60% of total jobs created in the first 3 years must directly relate to <br /> Orange County employees who are qualified as coming from low or moderate incomes <br />