City OKs $250,000 in incentives for Castle Branch jobs

Published: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 8:10 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 8:10 p.m.

On Tuesday, all seven Wilmington City Council members praised the chance to lure 400 jobs here before voting unanimously to spend up to $250,000 in business incentives as Castle Branch expands its operations.

On Monday, the New Hanover County Commissioners voted unanimously to spend the same amount, meaning both governments have now ponied up $500,000 in business incentives for Castle Branch, an employment screening firm that already employs 200 in the Port City.

The incentives could be especially important because Castle Branch is also considering a California site for the expansion.

Before the vote, the council members praised the incentives as a united city and county effort to support job growth.

Mayor Bill Saffo said he has been at negotiations and knows how difficult it is to recruit companies. Communities that do not sweeten the pie with incentives will sit on the sidelines, the mayor said, adding, ?We?re going to have to be competitive if we want jobs.?

Mayor Pro Tem Earl Sheridan, a longtime professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, said he talks to graduating students who want to stay here but can?t find a job. Councilman Kevin O?Grady said the jobs would be an opportunity to keep college students living here.

?They hire the kind of people that can make a future for our city,? O?Grady said. ?That will help grow our city.?

Castle Branch currently has a 32,000-square-foot building adjacent to Mayfaire Town Center.

Scott Satterfield, the CEO of Wilmington Business Development, which handles economic development for Wilmington, New Hanover and Pender counties, said the possibility the company could choose to expand on the West Coast is a compelling reason for the incentives.

Councilwoman Laura Padgett, noticing the parallels between Wilmington and warm, coastal climates in California, agreed. ?It?s important that we keep these jobs here,? she said.

During the public hearing, one resident said she did not think the incentives were necessary.

Paige Freeman said the money would be better used for infrastructure or public safety, not picking winners and losers in business.

But Hal Kitchen, the chairman of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, pointed out that other areas offer incentives. ?We?ve got to be in there fighting that fight,? Kitchen said. ?Castle Branch appears to be just the kind of employer we want to retain here in Wilmington.?

To receive the city?s incentives, Castle Branch would be required to make a $9 million investment in a building here as well as deliver 400 new jobs.

The average salary for the jobs would be $35,000, Satterfield said. He also said the workers would help with employment screening, such as verifying immunization records and educational credentials.

In other business, the council voted 6-1 to adopt a voluntary annexation policy.

The policy has different criteria for two types of voluntary annexation: contiguous and non-contiguous. Non-contiguous areas, sometimes called satellite annexation, do not touch the city?s borders. Contiguous areas connect to the city, at least in part.

The policy includes a provision that means a developer whose project is denied by New Hanover County would have a mandatory cooling-off period before shopping the project to the city. The cooling-off period would only apply to developers voluntarily seeking to be annexed as a satellite area into the city.

Voluntary annexation became a contentious issue between the city and county last year when the city annexed a proposed apartment complex near Marsh Oaks that had previously been denied by the county commissioners.

Glenn Harbeck, the city?s development services director, said the six-month cooling off period is designed to encourage developers to decide up front whether they want to join the city. Harbeck also said it was designed as an olive branch to the county.

But Councilman Charlie Rivenbark, who cast the lone vote against the policy, has opposed the six month cooling off period because it slows development.

?You?ve got people out there that are wanting to spend money,? Rivenbark said before the vote.

As the N.C. General Assembly effectively blocked the ability for cities to involuntarily annex, voluntary annexation has cropped up as another option for the city to grow.

Julian March: 343-2099

On Twitter: @julian_march

Source: http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20130219/articles/130219601

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