SENECA − Officials of BASF Corporation and Oconee County this week announced the single largest investment ever in Oconee County, a $60 million-plus expansion of BASF’s Seneca plant that is projected to create 25 high-tech jobs over the next five years.
The project’s fruition, both county and company officials say, highlights the team effort it takes to put such projects together, efforts that sometimes take time.
The BASF expansion, for example, was in the works for about five years, said Jim Alexander, Oconee County economic development director. “These things just don’t happen overnight.”
The Seneca plant manufactures and distributes precious metal catalysts, chemicals, salts, solutions and chemically precipitated precious metal-activated powders.
A fee-in-lieu-of-taxes package negotiated with Oconee County, which will aid the company’s financing of the expansion, was a key factor playing a role in landing the project, according to company officials.
The agreement is projected to bring the county about $7 million in fees over the next 24 years.
Lamson-Scribner said he was pleased to be bringing the expansion project to the area.
“BASF has a sizeable operating presence in Seneca, which has grown significantly during the past 25 years,” Lamson Scribner said. “During that time, we have developed a strong and positive relationship with the community and we have been very pleased with the quality of the local workforce.
“Going forward, we are committed to expanding our presence in Seneca because we think it’s a great place to do business,” he said. “We currently have a number of expansion projects in various stages of development and approval that will increase our local operating footprint, creating a win-win for both our company and our community.”
The expansion projects are being planned over the next five years are in various stages of development and funding approval, said Lamson-Scribner.
Some of the projects have already been funded and will expand the Seneca plant’s operations in 2012, while others are being considered for the longer term and remain subject to internal funding and approval.
“We expect to create up to 25 jobs as a result of these planned and potential projects,” he said. “The majority of these jobs are associated with the projects that have already been funded and will be filled in 2012.”
The plant, 554 Engelhard Drive, Seneca, now employs about 350 people.
Oconee County Council Chair, Joel Thrift and other county officials cited the project as both a typical and outstanding example of how both public and private entities work together in job creation and economic development.
This project, they said, took a close working partnership between the Oconee County Economic Development Commission, Duke Energy, the county council, the South Carolina Department of Commerce, Upstate Alliance, Tri-County Technical College, ReadySC, AdvanceSC, Oconee County Industrial Group, Blue Ridge Electric Co-operative and Fort Hill Natural Gas −− all working together and with BASF.
The project is also, said county officials, an example of how aiding and nurturing existing industries is as important as recruiting new ones.
The BASF plant in Seneca, for example, began as a facility of the Engelhard Corporation.
In April 1985, the Engelhard Corporation, Edison, New Jersey, confirmed in a letter to then Oconee County economic development director Robert Gaillard the company’s plans to construct a new chemical catalyst plant in Oconee County that would employ approximately 200 people.
Construction, the cost of which was projected at $25 million, was expected to begin in mid-1985 and be completed by late 1986. Ground was broken Wednesday, December 18, 1985.
The operation produced a catalyst, a chemical or compound that speeds up a chemical reaction without changing the properties of the original compound.
At the time of its construction, the Oconee County Engelhard plant was the largest of the company’s catalyst plants in the world, according to Russell Oiler, general manager of the Seneca operation at the time.
“Engelhard selected Seneca as the site for the plant “because of the people,” Oiler told local media at the time.
In February 1987, Engelhard announced that it would add a multi-million dollar expansion to its catalyst manufacturing facility to meet growing market demands, particularly in the custom chemical catalyst area.
Engelhard was acquired by the BASF Corporation in 2006.