As part of a 3-hour meeting Monday night, the Laurens County Council welcomed the county’s new administrator, thanked the interim county administrator for her service, and moved forward investments in the county of $63 Million and $93 Million.
County Administrator Jerre Threatt took a moment of personal privilege to express “how excited I am to be serving the citizens of Laurens County. This is my second week on the job. I’ve been going around trying to get to know folks. I look forward to the future with Laurens County.”
Threatt comes to the county from Presbyterian College; an urban planner, he also served as the assistant city manager in Clinton for two years.
Several council members expressed their gratitude to the Deputy County Administrator, Melissa Ferquerson, for stepping in as the interim when the former administrator, Thomas Higgs, left for Colleton County.
Laurens County Development Corporation Executive Director Jon Coleman led the council through the process of introducing and moving ahead the two new industrial prospects.
“If these projects follow the usual timeline, we will start 2026 with a bang, with two announcements,” Coleman said.
The industries behind the investments are not identified, for competitive reasons, until closer to final reading of their ordinances (until then, they have code-names).
Project Floyd is an investment of $63.8 Million that will employ 15 people in the Hunter Industrial Park, Laurens. The available building listed by the state’s commerce department is the Hunter Industrial Building, at 1200 Commerce Blvd., which has a minimum size of 310,000 sq ft and a maximum size of 621,486 sq ft, with 139 docks on 72.70 acres (no price listed).
Project IPE will purchase the former Michelin Distribution Center, with an investment of $93 Million to create 126 jobs. Another company currently occupies a portion of this large building, so the new company will occupy the rest, leasing back to the current occupant that business’s portion of the building, Coleman said.
Built in 1991, “the building is a total of 1,170,972 SF on 118 acres. It is broken into 6 rooms with Maximum Foreseeable Loss (MFL) walls between each section. Clear heights in the building range from 24'3" at the eaves to 32'2" at the center and there are 118 dock high doors and room to park over 500 trailers on site. The property is located within 1/2 mile from I-385 and within 35 miles of the GSP International Airport, the SC Inland Port and BMW,” according to the South Carolina Department of Commerce.
The price for this property on Hwy 221 North is listed at $64,403,460.
The council unanimously approved inducement agreements, fee-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements, and amendments to industrial park agreements that Laurens County has with Greenville County.
Second reading could be Dec. 8 (the county council’s regular meeting dates are the second Monday of each month, except for holidays in the Hillcrest Complex East, 105 Bolt Dr., Laurens).
There were no public comments on agenda items. Council agreed to the appointment of Sherri Gordon to the Upper Savannah Workforce Board.
This Nov. 10 meeting lasted 3 hours because council spent about 21 minutes in open session, then the rest of the first hour in executive session, then about two hours in a wide-ranging discussion with the County Planning Commission. County Attorney Wes Meetze led the council and the commission through this discussion.
As a result of the closed, executive session, council agreed to have the county administrator execute the purchase of 1 and 3 Gallon St. in Laurens, upheld the decision of the interim administrator to terminate a fire department employee (receiving legal advice), and took no action on the employment and compensation of the Human Resources Director.
Council Member Arthur Philson Jr. voted “no” related to the employee’s termination and presented a statement under the council comments portion of the meeting related to concerns he had received from citizens. These related to Americans with Disabilities Act concerns about county buildings, signage at the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office in downtown Laurens, Hurricane Helene relief for neighborhoods, the need for an outside county audit, and possible renewal by county voters of the Capital Projects Sales Tax.
