ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300048
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
An expansion that will add 250 jobs at one of Pulaski's Renfro Corp. plants got a key chunk of its funding approved Wednesday at a special Town Council session.
Council unanimous approved a $500,000 loan from the town's urban development action grant fund, earmarked for economic development. The fund originated with federal loans obtained by the town for industrial expansions, since repaid.
The loan will be to the Pulaski County Industrial Development Authority, which will use them to build a 105,678-square-foot addition to Renfro's existing 101,817-square-foot Newbern Road plant.
The authority then will lease the site to Renfro, with an option for the company to buy it. Other financing includes $700,000 from the Virginia Economic Development Revolving Loan Fund, $4.4 million from NationsBank, and a $500,000 commitment from Pulaski County through the authority.
"It appears to me that we have a good document here," Vice Mayor W.H. "Rocky" Schrader said of the loan agreement, "and we're growing again." Mayor Andy Graham said council has been working on this agreement for a long time. The vote followed a closed session of about 30 minutes.
What this amounts to is a restructuring of earlier financing dating back to when Renfro built its Newbern Road plant.
The town and county began working in 1989 to develop the industrial site on Virginia 611 within the town, for Renfro's second Pulaski plant. Renfro has exceeded all job creation goals for the original plant, and will now expand it.
The loan from the town will be interest-free for the first nine months, and then have an annual 7.5 percent interest rate until repaid. The town has agreed to reduce that rate by 0.03 percent for each new job created by the Renfro expansion.
Renfro is already the town's largest employer, with some 1,300 people working in its three current plants, and third-largest in the county.
The expansion will allow Renfro to close facilities in mid-1993 in the former L.A. Joe Department Store building in a shopping center on East Main Street (Virginia 99), in addition to its original 9-year-old Jefferson Street plant and Newbern Road plant. Renfro is a manufacturer of socks, some 274 million of them a year making it the world's second-largest socks producer.
Some of the preliminary work has already been done at the plant site, but the start of construction has had to await getting the financing in line. Construction was originally projected at nine months.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB