Niagara Bottling, a California-based water bottle company, could invest $114 million to construct a new manufacturing facility in Walton.
On Thursday, officials from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority preliminarily approved a $1.3 million incentive package for the company to open a manufacturing operation in Boone County. As of now, there is yet to be a specific address in Walton designated for the facility.
BE NKY Growth Partnership — a Northern Kentucky economic development agency — worked in conjunction with Niagara Bottling officials for a little over a year on the project, BE NKY Client Relationship Manager Devon Stansbury told LINK nky.
While Niagara is strongly considering Boone County as a potential location, it’s still a possibility the company could choose another area, Stansbury said. Niagara has also visited prospective sites in southwestern Ohio.
“They’re still doing due diligence on the site that they’re honed in on that is in Boone County,” she said. “Basically, the preliminary approval from the KEDFA board is tying the state to this project. However, the approval doesn’t necessarily tie the company to the state or to the specific location in Boone County.”
The project would cost Niagara $4.4 million to acquire the land, nearly $46 million to construct the facility, and $63 million in equipment costs, according to KEDFA documents.
The package includes a $1.1 million negotiated tax incentive over ten years as part of the Kentucky Business Incentive Program. To qualify for the yearly incentives, the company is required to create 60 jobs and have an average hourly wage target of $45.17.
In addition, $200,000 worth of incentives for building fixtures and construction materials were preliminarily approved.
Northern Kentucky is already home to various food and beverage manufacturers: Tyson Foods, Perfetti Van Melle and Darling Ingredients among others. Expanding Northern Kentucky’s food and beverage manufacturing sector is a focus of BE NKY’s economic development strategy.
“Northern Kentucky’s geographic location is attractive for food and beverage companies because of our geographic location providing proximity to major customers and more than half of the U.S. population within a day’s drive,” BE NKY CEO Lee Crume said in a statement to LINK nky.
The next step for Niagara is to receive final approval from KEDFA, Stansbury said. If approved, the company can move forward with utilizing its incentives.
“If everything goes okay, and they do still want to pursue this site, — technically, now, since they have preliminary approval, they can start hiring, spending their capital investment, doing all the things to ramp up their operations,” she said.
Founded in 1963, Niagara’s corporate headquarters is based in Diamond Bar, Calif. The company produces private-label water bottles for large retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Food Lion and Safeway.
