Window maker plans 500-worker factory in Johnston County after landing NC incentive

A major window manufacturer promises to create 501 jobs over the next five years in the Johnston County town of Selma after the state approved an incentive deal worth just over $4 million in future tax benefits.

Headquartered in New York City, Crystal Window and Door Systems boasts being one the top 25 window producers in North America. It has five U.S. facilities in New York, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania and Missouri. The plant it pledges to build in Selma, a town of 6,800 people about 30 miles southeast of Raleigh, would specialize in aluminum and vinyl window extrusions, which can include frames and surrounding panels to increase stability.

Demand for the company’s products has “surged,” Mark Poole of the N.C. Commerce Department said during an Economic Investment Committee meeting Thursday, including with “customers in the southeastern U.S.”

Crystal Windows manufactures for both residential and commercial buildings.

Under its agreement with the state, the company will pay average wages of at least $56,200 at the site and invest just over $83 million by the end of 2028. Crystal will receive $4.15 million in payroll tax benefits from North Carolina if it reaches its hiring and investment targets through 2036, according to its job development investment grant, or JDIG.

Johnston County and the town of Selma will offer a combined $3.7 million for the windows project.

About JDIGS

JDIGs are the chief economic incentive North Carolina offers employers to come to or expand in the state.

While most JDIG-backed projects historically haven’t achieved their original hiring goals, state officials say the program has helped recruit large-scale employers since 2003. In the past month alone, North Carolina has approved JDIGs for a solar panel maker in Pitt County, a construction firm in Chatham County, and Fujifilm Diosynth to expand its incoming plant in southern Wake County.

After approving its incentive for Crystal Window on Thursday, the N.C. Economic Investment Committee voted to award a JDIG for Green New Energy Materials, which is owned by a Chinese parent company, to build its first U.S. facility north of Charlotte in Lincoln County. This plant, which promises to create 545 jobs, would produce a component for lithium-ion batteries.