Aspen Aerogels will invest a minimum of $325 million to build a factory in Bulloch County’s Southern Gateway Commerce Park south of Statesboro for production of aerogel thermal insulating material used in electric vehicle batteries, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday. Company officials expect the plant to be in operation by late 2023, creating more than 250 advanced manufacturing jobs.

For that cost or possibly more, the company expects to build and equip a 500,000-square-foot facility here, greatly expanding production capacity beyond that of its existing plant in Rhode Island.

This appears to be the largest announced dollar-value private investment for any manufacturing facility in Bulloch County, Georgia, in its history.

“In terms of private investment it is, as far as I know, if I just go down the list of things that I wasn’t involved in before I got the job,” said Benjy Thompson, CEO of the Development Authority of Bulloch County.

That list, going back nearly 30 years, includes the Walmart Distribution Center and the Briggs & Stratton, Great Dane Trailers and Viracon (recently replaced as owner by Cardinal Glass Industries) plants. The largest of these, the Briggs & Stratton small engines plant, first announced in 1994, was employing nearly 800 people a few years later, but after an initial investment of a little less than $100 million to establish the factory.

“So, I think that this is far and away the largest single private investment,” Thompson said.

Of course, this comparison does not take into account inflation or subsequent investments made here by Briggs & Stratton, Walmart and others.

Local incentives approved

Public investment for the Aspen Aerogels project will also be formidable, with the state of Georgia, Bulloch County and the city of Statesboro all pitching in for the incentives package in exchange for the commitment to job creation.

The Development Authority of Bulloch County, or DABC, board met at 3 p.m. Thursday. Then the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners and Statesboro City Council held special meetings, separately but simultaneously, at 4:30 p.m. and unanimously approved agreements for the local contributions to the incentives package.

The governor’s announcement had been timed for release around the time that the multifaceted agreements were formally approved.

“Aspen Aerogels has put their confidence in Georgia, our people, and the growing electric mobility sector in our state, and we are excited to add this American company to our rapidly expanding EV portfolio,” Kemp said in the news release. “Every day, we are utilizing our many assets to bring jobs to hardworking Georgians in every corner of the Peach State, and this is just the latest to come to Bulloch County and southeast Georgia.”

The DABC is providing a 90-acre site within the commerce park at the Interstate 16 and U.S. Highway 301 interchange free-of-charge to Aspen Aerogels.

Through a lease arrangement, the company will enjoy a 10-year, 100% abatement of county-government property tax on the factory and site, but this does not extend to the portion of property tax controlled by the Bulloch County Board of Education. So, Aspen Aerogels will pay taxes in support of the local public schools.

The city of Statesboro extended its water, sewer and natural gas systems several years ago, by several miles, to serve the commerce park and the larger, county Tax Allocation District that contains it.  Now the city will extend its utility pipelines farther within the park to serve Aspen Aerogels. The DABC is applying for a federal Employment Incentive Program grant for $750,000 to cover the cost, and if not successful, the city will be on the hook for up to $500,000, with Aspen covering the remainder.

The site is currently far outside of the city limits, but the City Council has agreed that, if the property is annexed into Statesboro or brought into its fire service district, the city will not impose any property tax or fire fees within the 10-year term of Aspen’s lease agreement with the DABC. But the company will pay the standard rates for the city’s utility services after the connections are provided.

Park’s first industry

TravelCenters of America’s broke ground in the commerce park in November for a TA Express center, becoming the first business to start construction in the park at the I-16 interchange after more than 10 years of city, county and state infrastructure spending meant to spur investment. Construction of the TA Center, a combination commercial truck stop and public fueling center with a fast-food restaurant, is now progressing rapidly.

But the Aspen Aerogels plant will be the first actual industry in the park, and will take up about half of the DABC’s remaining land at the site.

“From everything that I have heard, it is going to be great for Bulloch County,” said Board of Commissioners Chairman Roy Thompson. “You know, we’ve been waiting on this to happen for quite a few years, and we have had a lot of tire kickers, but some of them were undesirable, some of them went to other places, but it just seems like this one was made to be.”

Chairman Thompson and the unrelated Development Authority CEO both said that county officials are never eager to grant tax abatements but that these are necessary to secure new industries.

“We’ll have to just sacrifice taxes for a period of time, but we really need companies to come in with higher paying jobs, and so I think this is an outstanding, quality company that’s coming in, and looking forward to them coming here, getting it built and starting to operate here in Bulloch County,” Roy Thompson said.

Previous plans

In fact, Aspen Aerogels first announced plans to build in Bulloch County, but a different type  of plant at the original Gateway Industrial Park, which is on the other side of U.S. 301 and closer to Statesboro, in 2015. That was to have been a $70 million plant with a little over 100 jobs, which would have made Aspen’s traditional aerogel product, often used to insulate petroleum industry pipelines.

But those plans changed after a dip in oil prices. Now the company has moved into making new aerogel products under the registered trademark PyroThin, to serve as thermal barriers in electric vehicle, or EV, batteries.

Aspen’s reasons

Quoted in the Governor’s Office news release, Aspen Aerogels President and CEO Don Young did not mention the incentives but cited other reasons for choosing this location.

“The City of Statesboro and the Bulloch County region offer Aspen a superior combination of operating features, including access to efficient ports; a strong, available workforce; and secure, low-cost utilities and critical raw materials,” Young said. “We are increasingly being asked to provide broader solutions for improved battery performance and safety centered on our PyroThin materials that provide thermal management, mechanical stability, and fire protection properties to EV battery systems.”

Aspen Aerogels, which is publicly traded, symbol ASPN, on the New York Stock Exchange, has its corporate headquarters in Northborough, Massachusetts, and currently operates a single production facility, in East Providence, Rhode Island, which employs about 250 people. Multiple online financial sites showed the corporation’s market capitalization value as a little over $900 million, as of Thursday. 

DABC Vice Chair Billy Allen was quoted in the state release, welcoming the company to the community.

“Along with our great site and logistics advantages, we believe that Aspen’s decision to locate here is a testament to our region’s commitment to innovation, particularly in the electric mobility ecosystem,” Allen said. “We are confident that our tremendous education resources, including Georgia Southern University and Ogeechee Technical College, will provide critical support to help Aspen flourish.”

Some state inducements are also involved in bringing the plant here. Marie Gordon, communications director for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said officials plan to finalize and sign documents this week and will release details upon signing, in accordance with state law.

“It’s a thrilling day to be able to welcome Aspen Aerogels’ innovative, sustainable solutions for the electric vehicle and energy storage markets to Georgia,” said the department’s Commissioner Pat Wilson. “We look forward to having Georgia employees collaborating with Aspen’s network of world-class scientists, engineers, and additional skilled workforce to solve the challenges of our changing mobility landscape.”

Aspen plans to begin hiring in the second half of 2022 across a number of disciplines, from skilled manufacturing operators to advanced process engineers, as well as quality and maintenance technicians and professional support. Individuals interested in employment opportunities can visit www.aerogel.com for information  as it becomes available.