Great Lakes Cheese Considers Troy for HQ Expansion
Berkshire BOE Agrees to 15-year tax abatement
Berkshire Schools Board of Education removed the last barrier to Great Lakes Cheese possibly keeping its headquarters in Troy Township with a unanimous vote April 9.
Berkshire Schools Board of Education removed the last barrier to Great Lakes Cheese possibly keeping its headquarters in Troy Township with a unanimous vote April 9.
That makes it one of three locations the cheese producing and packaging giant, started in Newbury Township, may choose for a $65 million expansion, said school Superintendent John Stoddard.
The vote acknowledges the community reinvestment area agreement between Geauga County Commissioners and GLC, which offers the incentive of a 15-year, 100-percent tax abatement if the company decides to build in the CRA on the Great Lakes Parkway off U.S. Route 422.
Stoddard said the expansion would bring about 265 full-time positions to the county.
Geauga County Director of Community and Economic Development Anita Stocker told commissioners April 3 GLC employs more than 730 people and may choose one of the three locations as early as May.
The other two locations are in Tennessee and North Carolina, Stoddard said.
The CRA agreement between GLC and the county requires the addition of 265 jobs over three years after the project is completed, Stocker said, adding salaries for the positions average $100,000.
Completion is projected to be in 2020 and the property tax abatement would be $80 million, she told commissioners.
After the commissioners meeting, Berkshire Schools Treasurer Beth McCaffrey said the district was on board with the abatement and GLC has provided a lot of tax revenue to the district from its cheese packaging plant in Troy as well as from several other businesses in the industrial park served by Great Lakes Parkway.
Swiss immigrant Hans Epprecht started the business in 1958 and it remains privately owned by the Epprecht family and over 2,600 dedicated employees across the country, according to the company website.
Parcels were acquired by GLC in Troy starting in 1997, according to records from the Geauga County Auditor’s Office website. Permits were issued for the main plant with an estimated value of $14.5 million in 2008 and for an addition valued at about $2.5 million in 2010.
