NC city lands passenger rail manufacturing plant with promise of 500 new jobs
On Tuesday, the North Carolina Economic Investment Committee awarded the German company Siemens Mobility a $5.6 million grant to construct a passenger rail vehicle manufacturing plant in the Davidson County city of Lexington, part of a broader $32.9 million package state and local governments plan to invest in the site.
The facility is expected to create 506 jobs by 2029 with a minimum average wage of $51,568.
Siemens Mobility, a division of the Munich-based conglomerate Siemens, currently produces passenger vehicles at a facility in Sacramento, California, but the company had sought to add a second U.S. plant east of the Mississippi River.
On Tuesday, the state shared that Siemens selected Lexington over an alternative site in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The county seat of Davidson County, Lexington is about 60 miles northeast of Charlotte and 100 miles west of Raleigh.
“The expansion will provide additional capacity to meet anticipated growth in demand, provide facilities for maintenance and servicing for the Eastern region,” said Mark Poole, finance director for the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
Siemens Mobility’s initial agreement with North Carolina was set to begin in 2024, but the company requested a one-year delay citing potential supply chain issues and labor shortages.
According to the Walden Model, which North Carolina uses to calculate the value of incentives it awards companies, the Siemens plant in Lexington will increase the state GDP by around $1.6 billion by 2036, the last year of the company’s agreement with the state.
By then, the state estimates the project will have added $30.3 million in net revenue.
The $5.6 million job development investment grant, or JDIG, will only be realized if Siemens achieves its hiring targets. But the project’s overall incentive package is much greater, as the North Carolina Department of Transportation will allocate $9.4 million to improve infrastructure around the site and the state will put $626,300 into a local utility fund. Additional public money will go to local community colleges to train future Siemens employees.
In total, North Carolina’s package for the Siemen’s plant is worth $16.8 million, while local incentives from Davidson County and the city of Lexington total an additional $16.1 million.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
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