By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Herald Bulletin
Project Echo — the possible Nestle Corp. factory — continued to gain steam this week as the city committed to help buy the land.
The city of Anderson agreed to pay the interest on a loan, not to exceed $400,000, to purchase 190 acres designated for Project Echo.
“We hope this will be a very, very short-term loan,” Mayor Kevin Smith said. If all goes as planned, the land will quickly be resold to a company to build a 1.2 million-square-foot food processing plant creating 230 jobs.
Though city officials still aren’t naming any names, that company could be Nestle.
The city itself isn’t taking out the loan — the Corporation for Economic Development will buy the 190 acres located west of the Flagship Enterprise Center.
But because the CED is just a group of business people and economic development officials, not a money-holding body itself, “they needed an entity such as the city,” City Attorney David Happe said about helping them get the loan for the property.
The action is similar to co-signing for a loan but doesn’t expose the city to as much financial risk.
“The principal (payment) is still CED’s responsibility,” Happe said.
If all goes as planned, Board of Public Works member Bob Schuler said, the land will be re-sold — and the loan paid off — very shortly.
“If it’s a 7 percent loan, and it gets paid off in 90 days — that’s only $7,000,” he said. “So it’s really a very nominal sum.”
The money will come from the city’s food and beverage funds.
The city also reserved the right to review the loan in six months.
Board of Public Works Chairman Rob Sparks described the move as a continuation of economic development efforts.
“This is another piece of the puzzle,” he said.
Until May, Project Echo was just the code name for an economic development lead that could create 230 non-automotive manufacturing jobs.
Then the newspaper in Lima, Ohio, reported that its county had lost out on a Nestle plant to Anderson. The Ohio effort was also code-named Project Echo.
But Anderson officials have remained mum, saying that the deal isn’t set and any information given to the media could ruin it.
But officials have continued to prepare for a new development. At the beginning of June, the Anderson Redevelopment Commission approved extending the city’s tax increment financing district to include that land. That allows them to use TIF money to improve the property and possibly offer economic incentives.
At the same time, they revealed that a 1.2-million-square-foot food processing facility may be built there.
Nestle is the world’s largest food and beverage company, producing everything from dog food to chocolate milk. It reported $75 billion in sales in 2005.