COG Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

expansion, and the number of new jobs created. According to the magazine, the Triad had 41 new and expanded corporate facilities projects.

In 2018, Publix Super Markets announced that it will open a new distribution center in Greensboro that could bring as many as 1,000 new jobs to the city. With construction scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2020, the company plans to build the largest distribution facility in the region, a 1.8 million-square-foot center in east Greensboro. To secure the estimated $400 million investment, the NC State Economic Investment committee approved a $15.9 million incentives package requiring a $300 million investment and 300 new jobs by the end of 2022, with the remaining 400 jobs to be created by 2025. In addition, Guilford County has committed to an estimated $17

million in property tax incentives and Greensboro’s City Council has approved up to $20 million in similar incentives. Publix is a privately held, employee-owned company with operations throughout the southeastern United States, including nine distribution centers. Fortune magazine ranked Publix number one on their 2018 list of World's Most Admired Companies in the food & drug stores sector. Also this year, online retailer Amazon Inc. began construction and grading on a sight in Triad Business Park with plans to build a one million square-foot fulfillment center employing 953 full-time equivalent workers. Though Amazon has made no official announcement, the new facility was reportedly chosen due to its close proximity to the FedEx ground hub in Kernersville and sorting hub at PTIA in Greensboro. In 2016, Kay Chemical, a division of Ecolab , completed construction of a new 36,000 square-foot office building and existing building renovations in Greensboro. The $11 million investment allowed the company to retain 225 administrative positions at risk of being moved to corporate headquarters in St. Paul, MN. Additionally , 45 new administrative jobs are being added over three years through 2018, paying an average of $48,000. In 2018, the company continues to expand with the construction of a 12,000 square-foot cleanroom manufacturing facility and the purchase of the former Coca-Cola building adjacent to its campus for additional storage space. Kay Chemical specializes in customized programs to meet the unique food safety and sanitation requirements of the Quick Service Retail and grocery markets to global customers such as McDonald’s and Walmart. Since 2016, A lorica Inc. has added 1,400 new jobs with benefits at its global call center in the Triad. The Irvine, CA based company is now the largest provider of customer service solutions in the U.S. City leaders continue to work with economic development officials in the region related to development of potential “ Megasites ”, those locations typically greater than 1,000 acres that could house a large manufacturing facility, such as an auto assembly operation. In particular, two sites within twenty-five miles of Greensboro in nearby Randolph and Chatham counties could offer 1,900 and 1,800 acres, respectively. The Randolph site reached a milestone in June, 2016, receiving industrial site certification that designates the site as construction ready for a large-scale industrial user. The City of Greensboro has been working to provide needed water and sewer infrastructure to the Randolph site for service delivery within 24 months of a prospective company using the site. The Chatham site received official state certification as a megasite in June, 2014 and was selected to participate in Duke Energy’s Site Readiness Program that helps officials recruit major industries. In support of these initiatives, a nonprofit foundation, Golden Leaf, awarded $11 million in grant funding - $7 million allocated to water and sewer line construction for the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite, and $4 million for water and wastewater infrastructure at the Chatham-Siler Megasite. XI