An international company may bring a new office and potentially more than a 1,000 new jobs to the area.
On Tuesday night the Williamson County Tax Study Committee unanimously approved a plan offering a tax incentive to Schneider Electric USA, Inc.
The Paris, France-based company has entered the first stage of the process to open an office at 6700 Tower Circle in Franklin. Schneider would open an 150,000 to 180,000 square foot office at Two Franklin Park.
“This is the next step for us to talk to this company,” said county mayor Rogers Anderson. “It is another feather in our cap to have a company with this high quality of jobs.”
The maximum projected number of jobs the company would create is 1,140, with an average salary of $73,000 per year plus benefits. Schneider, which might be most recognizable to Americans for its Square D products, is 180 years old and has 180,000 employees in more than 100 countries around the world. Its American headquarters are in Andover, Massachusetts.
“We are a global specialist in energy management and automation,” said Ryan Stanton, smart cities account manager for Schneider, and one of its representatives at the Tax Committee meeting. “We are looking at 800 to 900 jobs, along with expected organic growth.”
The economic tool the county plans to use to incentivize Schneider to come is called Tax Increment Financing. The county would, at maximum, give Schneider a $2,110,254 break in property taxes over ten years. However, this break happens only if Schneider has created at least 912 jobs, or 80 percent of the maximum.
As explained by economic development lawyer Thomas Trent, Tax Increment Financing can work over time, or as an upfront incentive. The company undertaking the project can arrange to make a loan through the Industrial Development Board. Then all or a part of the increase in property tax as a result of the project is called the increment. That dollar amount can be used to repay the loan, so that money is available up front.
All or part of the increment can also be used to simply pay for costs of the project being incentivized over time.
“The incentive is truly performance based,” Trent said. “If you don’t get the property tax increased, there is no increment.”
When a project is built or constructed on a tract of land, the property taxes will go up as the value of the site is increased. In the case of a TIF, the county trustee will pay the county an amount equal to the property tax for the year before the TIF plan is approved. In Williamson County, the next 42 percent of the increment (the increased taxes) will go to Williamson schools. Up to the remaining 58 percent of the increment could go back to the Industrial Development Board to provide an incentive for the company.
The next step is for this plan to pass the Budget Committee, which is holding its next meeting on June 6.
“We have to get it past France, have to get it past budgeting and there is always competition internally for capital,” said Jason Lake, a principal of NexGen Advisors and the other face for Schneider at the meeting. “I think we are real close . . . we have a few steps to go but I am very positive about our opportunity to make something happen.”
“This is one necessary part of the puzzle.”
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