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Dole Subsidiary Plans Vegetable Processing Plant in Gaston County, N.C.

Posted on: Wednesday, 3 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Aug. 3--RALEIGH -- Gov. Mike Easley announced yesterday that a subsidiary of Dole Food Co. will build a $54-million plant to process vegetables in Gaston County, creating 525 jobs there within three years and 900 jobs by 2016.

Other officials said that the move by David Murdock, Dole's billionaire owner, could be the first of several projects that might include redevelopment of the abandoned Pillowtex property in downtown Kannapolis and contracts for North Carolina farmers.

"I think it bodes well, because Mr. Murdock knows North Carolina is a state he can do business with," said Sen. David Hoyle, D-Gaston. "He knows North Carolina is open for business."

The plant in Gaston County will process and bag fresh vegetables.

"Locating the plant in Gaston County will expand Dole's distribution network and facilitate delivery of its salad products to its Southern and East Coast customers," Murdock said in a statement released by the governor's office.

Easley's office said that Dole is also considering building a frozen-fruit processing plant in North Carolina and plans to increase purchases of vegetables and berries here.

Murdock, the former owner of Cannon Mills before he sold the company to Fieldcrest, also owns the massive Pillowtex No. 1 plant in downtown Kannapolis.

State officials said that Murdock is pushing a proposal for a biotechnology incubator in Kannapolis that could commercialize products developed at the state's universities.

They said that he is asking for $15 million in state money to help demolish the former textile plant and pay for environmental clean-up of the site, and he wants the state to build university research labs in Kannapolis as well.

"They're wanting to do business there, and they need some help," Hoyle said.

Murdock -- an evangelist of sorts on nutrition -- is also in talks with university officials, some of whom compare his proposal in Kannapolis to N.C. State University's Centennial Campus.

"This thing's huge," said one source who has monitored the talks. "He's talking about wanting to change America's eating habits.... He believes in fruits and vegetables."

State officials dangled a few carrots of their own in front of Murdock as incentives to set up shop in the state.

Easley's office said that the company will receive $6 million in tax breaks offered under the William S. Lee Act, which legislators recently extended for two more years and Easley signed last week.

Easley also gave the company $500,000 in cash from the One North Carolina Fund, a fund for development deals that the governor controls.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

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Source: Winston-Salem Journal

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