Multimillion-dollar projects, a few hundred jobs on the table
By Justin Sayers – Senior Staff Writer, Austin Business Journal
Aug 26, 2024
A long-awaited cutlery manufacturer’s expansion in the area and another data center project are up for incentives next month in Georgetown, about 30 miles north of Austin.
Cangshan Cutlery Co. — which previously intended to move its headquarters to Leander but has opted to invest in Georgetown instead — and GPP Projects LLC will be considered for tax abatement agreements at the Georgetown City Council meeting on Sept. 24, according to public notices posted recently on the city’s website.
The moves are part of a continuing wave of manufacturers flocking to and investing in Georgetown, which for the last three years has been the fastest-growing city of its size in the country. Companies that have set up shop in Georgetown in recent months and years include GAF Energy LLC, CelLink Corp., US Farathane Corp., Hanwha Advanced Materials LLC and ZT Systems. The city has a population of 96,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Georgetown City Council over the last few weeks has been working to approve reinvestment zones for the sites tied to the two new projects – the first step in the tax abatement process. Georgetown economic development officials declined to comment.
Knifemaker sets its sights on Georgetown HQ
Cangshan Cutlery last year announced it was purchasing a 151,000-square-foot space in Georgetown at 111 Halmar Cove and abandoning plans to build a new HQ in Leander. Those plans went into motion this year when the knifemaker subleased a 158,000-square-foot building in NorthPark35 at 201 Velocity Drive.
Now, Cangshan Cutlery will be considered for a tax abatement agreement that would be contingent on the company investing at least $45 million in improvements across at least 135,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space at the 8-acre site, according to the public notices.
Chief Operating Officer Rick Loofs said the company has already moved about 60% of its inventory into the NorthPark35 building and plans to be operational there by the end of September. That will clear the way to start renovations on the Halmar Cove site.
“The incentives are important to ensure we maintain as healthy a financial position as possible while we are investing such significant amounts in capital improvements and capital equipment. We are excited to be fully operating in Georgetown as soon as possible and realize it takes time and a lot of coordination to ensure things go smoothly,” Loofs said in an email.
Loofs in April said the initial phase of the renovation was expected to take six months and would make half of the facility ready for manufacturing. The plan is to do the second phase in about two years.
At the time, the company had about 45 employees, though the goal is to have 175 employees once fully operational. That’s a revision of a previous forecast for Cangshan Cutlery to have 300 local employees long-term, though Loofs said the company still might hit that target for its U.S. workforce.
Loofs also said the company will decide later whether to continue to lease or purchase a warehouse and distribution space — but its goal is to stay in Georgetown.
“The city has been great as far as working with us to move forward with the renovation plans,” Loofs said. “I have never worked with a municipality that has been this responsive. … If the city will continue to work with us throughout the upcoming seven to 10 years, we have no desire to go anywhere else.”
Cangshan originally planned to move to Leander and received incentives from the city to build a 400,000-square-foot facility on a greenfield site at 204 Heritage Grove Road. But Loofs said last year that the company changed plans due to rising lease costs at its original headquarters in California, which prompted it to move earlier than expected to the site in Georgetown. The company is in the process of selling the Leander site.
The Georgetown site will handle manufacturing from Cangshan and New Star Foodservice Inc., a sister company that manufactures food service equipment and supplies.
Another data center to rise in metro
Data centers are popping up everywhere in the Austin metro, including in Hutto and Taylor and even Bastrop and Caldwell counties. You can now add Georgetown to the list.
The GPP project will consist of two phases, with each phase including a building with 45,000 square feet of data center space and an expected cost of about $45 million each. It will be located on a 10-acre parcel at 1201 Westinghouse Road.
The property appears to be located on what’s known as Windmill Hill, which includes property that has been cordoned off for commercial, industrial and multifamily space, including the Westinghouse Business Park, according to a brochure from Round Rock-based Don Quick & Associates Inc. The property is owned by San Angelos-based GTW Development LLC, which is tied to Steve Eustis Realtors Co.
Not much is known about the company behind the project. Attempts to reach the company were unsuccessful. A representative from Don Quick declined to comment.
Data centers are massive hubs for computer processing power — commonly called “the cloud” — that are used by many companies and industries. While they don’t create many long-term jobs, they do add value to a city’s tax rolls because of the large amount of investment at the sites. But, the U.S. data center boom has drawn criticism based on a variety of factors, such as the amount of power and water the facilities use.
Regardless, Central Texas has become a target for the industry. Most recently, the ABJ reported that Virginia-based EdgeConneX Inc. is eyeing a $1.3 billion data center project in Bastrop County and Austin-based Blueprint Projects a $1 billion project in Taylor.
Earlier this year, Caldwell County approved a $1.3 billion data center campus from Prime Data Centers, while Skybox Datacenters LLC and Prologis Inc. revealed they were planning another one in the Hutto Megasite to complement a billion-dollar data center they already are building.
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