North Carolina taxpayers will pay $13M to chemical company to build tech park
(The Center Square) — North Carolina taxpayers will subsidize the global chemicals company Albemarle by $13 million to build a technology park in Charlotte.
State officials awarded Albemarle nearly $13 million in incentives to develop an Albemarle Technology Park in Mecklenburg County to research lithium materials, the company announced this week.
The deal announced Tuesday requires Albemarle to invest $180 million and create 205 jobs, which are slated to pay an average of about $94,000, or about $18,000 more than the county average, according to Gov. Roy Cooper.
“North Carolina’s innovation economy continues to surge thanks to Albemarle Corporation building its research and development operations in Mecklenburg County,” Cooper said. “Albemarle’s cutting edge work will help bring the next generation of clean energy technology to life and create great jobs in North Carolina’s clean energy economy.”
A Cooper announcement states Albemarle’s project is subsidized by a Job Development Investment Grant with a potential reimbursement of $1.2 million over a dozen years. Cooper’s office did not return a message seeking clarification about the incentive package.
“Albemarle Technology Park is part of our mine-to-market innovation strategy to invest in the U.S. EV battery supply chain and to be a leader in advanced lithium materials for next-generation energy storage,” Albemarle CEO Kent Masters said. “This facility will focus and accelerate our lithium technology leadership, better enabling the world’s transition to more sustainable energy.”
Albemarle plans to work with strategic customers to develop novel lithium materials and manufacturing processes for new products at the ATP site, a former IBM and Flextronics facility.
“The company anticipates that enhanced process technologies developed at the ATP will unlock new lithium resources, increase sustainability by reducing energy and water use, and enable lithium recovery at end-of-life through cost-effective recycling,” according to a Albemarle statement.
The company expects to occupy the new facility by early 2025 and to complete the campus by late 2026.
“Charlotte has been home to Albemarle Corporation for several years,” said Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles. “This investment signifies their commitment to the growth and innovation of the company as well as our city, and we have a talented workforce that can fill the jobs this expansion will bring.”
Critics of the incentive package, and others like it, contend there’s better ways to encourage businesses to invest in North Carolina than Cooper’s targeted perks for select companies.
“This is another case of the government trying to pick winners and losers in the economy. No government has a good track record of handling that task successfully, and it’s not the government’s proper role. The best policies for boosting the economy involve lowering tax and regulatory burdens for all businesses,” said Mitch Kokai, senior political analyst for the John Locke Foundation.
“In this particular instance, it doesn’t seem likely that the grant was large enough to make a difference in determining whether the company decided to do business in North Carolina,” he said. “If not, then we have a case of government officials trying to take some credit for a business decision that was going to take place anyway. If that’s true, then taxpayers are paying for politicians’ attempts to win brownie points.”
