Agenda - 11-21-2013 - Information Item 6-G

Browse Search

2 Senior leadership from Morinaga have made recent visits to the area, to include Masao Hoshino (President of Morinaga America, Inc.) on October 8th and 15th, and most recently, President Toru Arai (President of parent firm Morinaga & Co., Ltd., from Tokyo) who returned on Nov. 8th. Infrastructure and related development issues are now ongoing to support the project, to include: • Public Hearings have now been completed to approve local financial incentives by the City of Mebane (Oct. 7th) and Orange County (Oct. 15th). These inducement agreements are "performance- based" and require the Company to show proof of creating jobs and investment, before any local incentive payments will be made. • City of Mebane voted following a Nov. 4th Public Hearing to annex and rezone the property. • Orange County's application process with the North Carolina Department of Commerce for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) is now underway to receive reimbursement for 75% of infrastructure development costs associated with extending water and sewer lines to the Morinaga site, and designing and engineering the 3,500' access road to be built by NCDOT. • Sewer to the site will connect to the new backbone main sewer line that is currently under construction between Mattress Factory Road and Ben Wilson Road. This utility work will connect the Morinaga project to Orange County's $4 million expenditure from the quarter cent sales tax to fund infrastructure throughout the economic development districts. The successful recruitment of this new business is a result of the Orange County Board of Commissioners' and our residents' efforts over the past 2 — 3 years to help diversify the local economy by: • Passage of the % cent sales tax referendum in Nov. 2011, which now provides funding to pursue economic development, to include developing the necessary utility infrastructure throughout the County's 3 economic development districts. • The BOCC's rezoning of over 700 acres of land in the 3 economic development districts to create compatible zoning and land use applications that appeal to business prospects. • The BOCC support of an inducement agreement policy, and interest to meet with potential investment prospects. • Increased efforts by the local municipalities and their elected officials and staff to pursue economic development by becoming more competitive in their approach to a more efficient permitting and review process, marketing efforts and product development.