The possibility of Wegmans Supermarket coming to Chapel Hill highlights several different milestones. It’s the first time that the Town of Chapel Hill and Orange County have partnered together for economic development work. It would also be the first Wegmans in Orange or Durham Counties.
On Wednesday, county and town leaders announced the Orange County Commissioners and the Town of Chapel Hill will consider an incentive package to bring Wegmans Supermarket to Chapel Hill. The Wegmans would open in the 14-acre property on 15-501 that will be vacated by Performance Automall next July. Performance is set to move to a new location near the Streets of Southpoint in Durham.
Almost as newsworthy as the supermarket itself is the first-of-its-kind collaboration between Chapel Hill and Orange County for an incentives package to make it all possible. The town and county would provide $2 million each over five years if Wegmans hits performance numbers.
“Wegmans could be poised to become one of the biggest sales tax producers in the county,” said Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger during an interview with WCHL’s Aaron Keck on Thursday. “This is a great opportunity. It makes us that foodie destination. One of the other fun things is they pay us a living wage. They’re great jobs. They have all this lots of community engagement that they do and they like to buy from local farms.”
The company is expected to bring 350 full-time jobs and $30 million in investment.
In the statement, Commissioner Earl McKee said Wegmens would serve as a new market for area farmers and producers.
Initial estimates show Wegmans would bring in $1.7 million in new-net tax revenue. Hemminger says those numbers were conservative.
“They actually do a lot better in their other stores,” said Hemminger. “They want to start off conservative. We’ll see how those numbers shake out over a period of time. They have to grant the tax money in before we would grant the tax money back. That’s how incentives work.”
Hemminger says the sales tax generation was a major attraction for town and county leaders.
“That’s one of the areas we struggle with,” said Hemminger. “We’ve been meeting for quite awhile trying to figure out when we do economic incentives.”
Another positive is roadwork issues will be solved around 15-501.
“There’s going to have to be some soil remediation over there after having a car center in that location,” said Hemminger. “We’ll see an environmental impact, as well.”
The Town Council is set to discuss the proposal during a public hearing Monday night. The County Commissioners will follow suit Tuesday.
Thus far, public feedback has been positive, according to Hemminger.
“We’ve had questions about incentives,” said Hemminger. “Wegmens was looking at many different sites in the area. We negotiated an agreement that we could both work towards and that’s why this package came together. 350 jobs is pretty significant. We’re losing about 250 jobs from Performance AutoMall, so it’s a net gain.”
Wegmans ranks fourth on Fortune Magazine’s 2016 list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” and has been on this list every year since it first began in 1998. In 2005, it ranked #1.
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