LCDC board votes to spend $1 million on ‘Project Zebra’
The Laurens County Development Corporation Board of Directors voted unanimously Tuesday at its regular meeting to spend $1 million to support “Project Zebra,” a record $620 million investment in the county planned by an unnamed existing industry.
The $1 million will go to help with infrastructure and other site improvements for the planned expansion, said LCDC President and CEO Jonathan Coleman.
“It will work similarly to how the state Department of Commerce works things,” Coleman said. “(The company) will have to provide invoices and proof of what they’re doing, and we’ll get them the money.”
The funds will come from the Octagon Reinvestment Fund, which allows for a percentage of fee-in-lieu-of-taxes money collected to be accumulated into the fund and re-invested into local projects.
Coleman said that fund, which still has about $1.1 million in it and collects about $1 million annually, has helped fund other projects such as the Connexial Center industrial park in Gray Court and others.
The $620 million “Project Zebra” investment more than doubles the largest two recent investments in the county, including a $256.475 million investment announced by ZF Transmissions in March of 2022 and eclipses by far ZF’s last two expansions, which totaled more than $456 million.
