by T.A. DeFeo
Georgia awarded a $3 million grant for a new Jack Link’s manufacturing facility in Perry to help upgrade infrastructure.
The company plans to build a 500,000-square-foot snack meat production plant as part of a $450 million investment, a project that officials nicknamed “Project Birdcage.” The new facility is on a 120-acre Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development certified site near Interstate 75 in Houston County.
According to state economic development documents, the company plans to create 800 “net-new full-time jobs with an average salary of $39,000” or “equivalent” hourly jobs with an average wage of $18.75 per hour. The new plant is slated to be operational by the end of 2023.
The money from the OneGeorgia Authority’s EDGE Fund goes to the Development Authority of Houston County. The authority will use the money to “offset the cost of gas line upgrade, site preparation, machinery and equipment,” according to a performance and accountability agreement the state provided The Center Square as part of an open records request.
Jack Link’s must repay the $3 million grant if it does not meet its performance and hiring obligations, documents show.
Georgia economic development officials did not immediately reveal the grant in announcing the new plant, citing a state law that does not require the state to disclose grants until officials say the process is complete and no longer “in progress.”
According to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the EDGE Fund provides “financial assistance to eligible applicants that are being considered as a relocation or expansion site and are competing with another state for location of a project.”
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T.A. DeFeo is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Jack Link’s Beef Jerky” by Mike Mozart. CC BY 2.0.
