Corning plans $50 million expansion at Midland plant WSOC TV

MONROE, N.C. — Corning Inc., a glass manufacturer with facilities in Midland, plans to expand its local operation with an investment of $50 million, adding 70 new full-time positions, according to Cabarrus Economic Development Corporation officials.

The proposed jobs would pay between $16 and $20 per hour, said John Cox, president and CEO of the EDC. Cox attended the Cabarrus County commissioner work session Monday to request a public hearing for a proposed incentive grant for Corning.

The grant request would give Corning an 85 percent discount on property taxes for three years. The total tax bill for three years on the expanded portion of the business would be $945,000. The county will consider giving Corning an $803,250 break on the taxes. That means Cabarrus County would still have an increase in property tax revenue of $141,750 from the project. After three years, Cabarrus County would collect the full property tax generated by the new investment.

Corning, which is headquartered in upstate New York, opened an optical fiber production plant on U.S. 601 in Midland in 1999 with help from both state and local incentive grants.

By 2002, Corning had invested more than $600 million and had about 900 employees working at the 1.2 million-square-foot facility, which sits on 250 acres in southern Cabarrus County.

Corning halted production in 2002 because of a collapse in the fiber-optic cable market. The market began to return five years later and, in 2007, Corning reopened the Midland plant. It had about 200 employees working at the Midland facility as of last July, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.

In North Carolina, Corning has facilities in Wilmington, Durham, Hickory, Winston-Salem, Concord and Midland. Corning currently employs 29,000 people worldwide and had $7.9 billion in sales in 2011, a 19 percent increase over the previous year, according to Corning Inc.

Cabarrus County commissioners will have a public hearing on the proposed economic development incentive grant at their meeting on April 16. Commissioners meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Cabarrus County Governmental Center, 65 Church St., SE, Concord.

WSOC

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