Plans to construct a 60,000 square-foot shrimp processing and biotechnology plant in Salters are back on track.
Greg Ensign, president and CEO of SC Shrimp Processing and Biotechnologies Inc., said the plant initially will employ 153 people.
Construction was supposed to begin in 2007 and be complete and fully operating sometime this month, but things didn’t come together as planned.
“We’re hoping to put the shovel in the ground no later than September,” Ensign said. “We should begin building this fall and be open next spring to coincide with the opening of the 2009 shrimp season.”
Ensign said the company had been approved for a U.S. Department of Agriculture guaranteed loan, but couldn’t get a bank to accept or close on the loan.
He said banks were looking for additional credit enhancements and a more solid guarantee that if the project fell through, USDA would reimburse them in what the banks perceived as a timely manner. The USDA loan program could take as many as three years to compensate the banks for loss, if the plans fell through.
This put construction on hold last year.
But in March, the S.C. Budget and Control Board approved a $10,000,000 allocation for an industrial revenue bond, Ensign said.
“It’s been a long process, but we are revitalizing a storied industry — the shrimp industry — and we think it’s the best thing since sliced bread,” Ensign said.
“We chose Williamsburg County because they are in great need of job creation. The county has showed us all the things a startup company likes to see,” he said.
Williamsburg County Council approved an economic incentive package for the plant in the early part of 2007 that includes a 6-percent fee-in-lieu of tax agreement, along with job development credit.
The plant is expected to eventually employ nearly 350 people.
“We look forward to an extended relationship that will be mutually beneficial and contribute to the overall prosperity of Williamsburg County,” Stanley S. Pasley, Williamsburg County supervisor and chairman of county council, said in a press release. “The creation of these new jobs for our citizens is very much appreciated.”
Ensign said the county also donated the land for the construction site located at the Tri-Area Business Center.
In addition, the S.C Department of Commerce will give SC Shrimp a corporate tax moratorium once it is in operation and has at least 100 people employed.
SC Shrimp will be a complete value-added plant, where the shrimp shell waste will be used as an additional component to the production of chitosan.
Chitosan is used in such industries as the medical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors.
Research and development on crop enhancement and industrial-grade chitosan also will be performed at the Williamsburg plant in collaboration with researchers at Coastal Carolina University in Conway.
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