GRANITE QUARRY — The Granite Quarry Town Council approved an incentive agreement on Thursday for an expansion of Amrep’s operations in Rowan County that would bring 170 jobs and over $21 million in investment.

The agreement provides a 45-percent tax rebate to the truck-manufacturing company, who will be building a facility in the Corporate Summit Center off of Julian Road. As part of the agreement, the company will request that the property, currently in the county, be annexed into the town limits.

“I think this is a momentous accomplishment. I congratulate everybody who’s worked so hard on this. This is a big move for Granite Quarry. I think it fulfills goals for all of us, and I think it’s going to make the town more successful in the future and help us elevate the community. I think this is a good thing,” said Councilor Rich Luhrs.

Amrep announced the expansion of its Rowan County facilities in May, stating that the company was looking to expand its first waste truck production facility in Rowan County. At the time, the county agreed to an incentives agreement for the company’s expansion, titled “Project Hoist” before it was announced. Town Manager Jason Hord said that the project was moved to Granite Quarry because of the annexation agreement between the municipalities, which places the property inside the town’s planned growth area.

“I love that it’s increasing our full-time job positions as well as supporting our annexation and utilities agreement that we put into place. Had we not completed all the work hours and put this annexation agreement into place, we wouldn’t be seeing all of these projects coming to fruition. It’s a really exciting time to be in Granite Quarry,” said Mayor Brittany Barnhardt.

Hord said that this is the largest industrial annexation the town has had while he has been there. Barnhardt said that she believed that this was the largest influx of investment and jobs that the town had ever had at one time.

Councilor John Linker said that he appreciated the clawback clauses in the agreement, which stated that if the company does not hit its job-creation goals for a certain fiscal year then the incentives are reduced by an amount proportional to the job shortfall. The town is expected to bring in 66 jobs by fiscal year 2026-2027, 111 jobs by fiscal year 2027-2028, 148 jobs by fiscal year 2028-2029 and 170 jobs by fiscal year 2029-2030.

When Project Hoist was presented to the Rowan County Board of Commissioners in October of 2023, Rowan EDC Vice-President Scott Shelton said that $21 million total would be invested into the property, with $17 million coming from property owner Beacon Partners to construct the facility and $4 million coming from Amrep for equipment.

After the discussion, the members of the town council voted unanimously to approve the incentives agreement. Councilor Laurie Mack was not present at the meeting and did not record a vote.