WHAT’S GOING ON: Spartanburg and Amazon Reportedly Agree on Deal

After delaying a vote that would bring an initial investment of $50 million and a total of 400 new jobs to one Upstate county, Spartanburg County Council has reportedly reached a deal with Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) to clear the way for the company’s new distribution center near I-26 on John Dodd Road.

Included in the online retailer’s incentive package will be a 30 year fee-in-lieu of taxes (FILOT) agreement, but when council meets tomorrow morning for a third reading and final vote on the deal, more details are expected on the plan that was known for months only by the code name “Project 300.”

According to Spartanburg County Council member Roger Nutt, “Spartanburg is poised to play a pivotal role in South Carolina’s economic recovery and is consistently ranked in the top 5 places in the nation for new business location by Site Selection magazine”

Nutt added, “As a councilman for Spartanburg County, I realize that if you want to bring jobs to your area, you have to take care of the Big 3: infrastructure, workforce, and customer proximity/access.  We have worked very diligently here in Spartanburg to ensure that we are ready for whatever comes our way.  We’ve been working on the Amazon deal for a while now, and we are all very pleased that it’s finally coming to fruition.  Companies like Amazon certainly get a lot of media attention, as they should, but all along we’ve been bringing new businesses in at a steady pace and filling up much of our available square footage around the county.  South Carolina will certainly recover from this bad economy, and it is my intention to see to it that Spartanburg leads the way.”