Thursday night the Peachtree City Council will consider offering a 75 percent break on impact fees for a Chinese heavy equipment company that is preparing to build its first U.S. location here.
Sany Corporation is asking for the maximum impact fee exemption of $198,166. The Development Authority of Peachtree City has recommended that the exemption be granted, and even with the exemption, the company will still pay $66,000 in impact fees and another $370,000 in other fees to the city and state, including building inspections, land disturbance permits and the like.
Sany is projecting to immediately employ 150 people at its equipment assembly and research/development operations. It already has a workforce of engineers and sales staff pushing 80 strong in a leased office in Peachtree City.
On hold for more than a year due to the economy, Sany plans to have construction completed by the end of next year, officials said. Plans include an initial 350,000-square-foot assembly building that will include a three-story research and development facility.
The company is projecting to spend more than $1 million on landscaping alone with a total project construction estimate of $62 million. The Sany site is adjacent to Cooper Lighting and Falcon Field; it has already been cleared and graded.
Sany, which already employs 79 people at its leased Peachtree City office, will employ 150 people in the first year the new facility is open, an additional 60 more jobs in the following year and then another 90 by the end of the third year of operation.
Only about 10 percent of the new jobs will be for unskilled labor, with executives being about 5 percent, management at about 15 percent, research/development and engineering at about 40 percent and skilled labor between 30 and 40 percent, according to a Sany representative.
All but about 2 percent of those jobs will be for Americans because the company believes strongly that Americans should handle development and sales to make sure it meets the expectations of U.S. companies, a Sany official said.
Once the buildings are complete and the 10-year phased property tax break expires, the property taxes paid by Sany each year will account for 14 percent of all property taxes paid by all occupants of the city’s industrial park, according to calculations made by the Development Authority.
Sany at that point would contribute about $141,000 in property taxes annually compared to about $989,000 for the rest of the entire industrial park currently, according to city projections.
In other business, council is expected to postpone a vote on a rezoning request to build 100 senior apartments on a 5.6-acre site off Newgate Road next to the Kedron Village shopping center. Developer NorSouth has asked for the continuance so the city planning commission can issue its recommendation at its scheduled June 14 meeting.
Council is also expected to discuss approving a resolution opposing a proposed federal law that would allow public safety employees to use federal collective bargaining standards.
