By Emily Ford

eford@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Rowan and Davie counties are competing against communities in South Carolina for a $200 million expansion by Gildan Yarns, according to RowanWorks Economic Development Commission.
The Montreal-based T-shirt and underwear-maker is considering building 500,000-square-feet yarn-spinning plants in both Rowan and Davie, RowanWorks said in an economic impact analysis completed Friday for Rowan County commissioners. Gildan plans to ask Rowan commissioners to donate 26 acres of vacant, county-owned land for the new plant, as well as requesting a tax grant incentive.
Gildan already has a $43 million plant under construction in the former PGT Windows building at 2121 Heilig Road in Salisbury, expected to create 200 jobs in the next six months. The land the company wants the county to donate is behind the former PGT building.
Details of the Davie project were not available this weekend, but in Rowan, the proposed $130 million plant would create 184 jobs, with an additional 39 spin-off jobs supported by the company’s activities, RowanWorks said. At full employment in Rowan, total income from jobs at the second plant, as well as spin-off jobs, would be about $8 million, according to the analysis.
Read more in Sunday’s Post.