The Economic Development Authority of James City County (EDA) recently approved more than $34,000 in local enterprise zone grants to two James City County manufacturers -- Ball Metal Container and Service Metal Fabricators. These firms were the recipients of the first such grants ever awarded in the County. The awards were triggered by multimillion dollar capital investments made by each company in the James River Enterprise Zone at James River Commerce Center during 1998. They represent the first in a series of grants James City County and its EDA expect to award the two companies over the next five years, assuming their capital investments in the Enterprise Zone remain the same or increase.

The James River Enterprise Zone is a 5.6 square-mile area containing more than 2,400 acres of land zoned for industrial uses in the southeastern end of James City County. It was designated by Virginia Governor George Allen in late 1995 to help spur new capital investment and job growth there. A new investment in the zone of at least $1 million by a business or industry can qualify it for a series of grants from the EDA over a period of years. Capital investments are those in new facilities, machinery and tools or business personal property, and local Enterprise Zone tax credits are also available for new job creation within certain guidelines. There is also a State component of the program which offers its own set off benefits for qualifying companies.

Ball's local plant manager Mark Orton and administrative manager Dennis Lutz and Service Metal owner Ed Roesch each received their check from James City County EDA Chairman Gil Bartlett. Ball Metal's 180,000-square foot, $6.3 million plant expansion at the 220-acre James River Commerce Center was responsible for its grant award. Service Metal Fabricators earned its grant by building a new $3 million, 60,000 square foot manufacturing facility there as well, doubling its previous leased space presence elsewhere in the County. Representatives from both companies credit the County's creation of the James River Enterprise Zone, which was the result of a statewide competitive process, as being extremely influential in their respective decisions to stay and grow in James City County.

Bartlett remarked that the EDA was pleased that the Enterprise Zone provisions were attractive to these two companies and expects that the Zone will attract additional business activity to locate there in the future. "Our hope with this program is to attract both new taxable capital investment and new jobs for County residents, particularly those residents living within the James River Enterprise Zone," he said. "Our Office of Economic Development actively markets the Zone's features to prospective businesses, and we are continuing to receive inquiries about this program."

Interested companies contemplating at least a $1 million new capital investment and/or significant job creation may contact James City County's Office of Economic Development at (757) 253-6607 for more details.