The Botetourt County Economic Development Authority (EDA) got an update on construction of the new Colonial Elementary School when it met Friday afternoon at Greenfield Education and Training Center.
The authority also learned that Eldor Corp. has qualified for another round of incentive payments from the state and county totaling $1.5 million.
The state is paying Eldor $1 million for receiving a certificate of occupancy for the new industrial plant in Botetourt Center at Greenfield and creating 100 jobs, according to a summary of incentives provided by the county’s Department of Economic Development.
The county’s next incentive payment will be around January 1 when Eldor is due another $500,000 for the company creating and maintaining those 100 new jobs for 90 days.
The Italy-based, advanced automotive parts manufacturing company began production in in early fall on the first of what is expected to be four assembly lines at the new state-of-the-art plant and the company’s United States headquarters where it is manufacturing electronic ignition parts for automobiles.
The latest payment will bring the county’s total “economic development grant” of $1.3 million. The first $300,000 was paid when construction of the footers for the new plant was completed in 2017. A second payment of $500,000 was made in the summer when the company received its certificate of occupancy.
The state payments are from the Virginia Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund (COF), a discretionary incentive available to the governor to secure a business location or expansion project for Virginia. Grants are awarded to localities on a local matching basis.
Eldor was granted $3.2 million in COF — $2 million paid in 2016, the $1 million being paid this month and another $200,000 when the company has invested just over $67.6 million in capital investments and created 315 new jobs.
The overall incentive agreement calls for Eldor to invest $106 million — $29 million in real estate and $77 million in the plant — and 650 jobs.
Those incentives do not include the $3 million for site preparation that was split evenly between a General Assembly appropriation and a county appropriation.
Capital Projects Manager Jim Whitten told the EDA that grading on the site for the new elementary school in Blue Ridge was going “pretty well” despite the rain challenges.
He said the contractor is ready to set the pad — the school’s actual building site.
The EDA awarded a grading contract of $891,000.
So far, the work on the site has totaled $552,491. Whitten said the project is “going pretty well. We just need some more dry days.”
The school is slated to be ready to open in the fall of 2020.
