SILER CITY, N.C. (WNCN) — North Carolina leaders are trying to persuade a computer chip company to come to Chatham County.
In the proposed state budget released Tuesday, state officials recommended spending $112 billion to get the unnamed computer chip company to call Chatham County home.
In return, the company would have to invest $4.8 billion in private funds and create 1,800 jobs.
While there is no official confirmation, it is believed the company would move onto the 1,800 acres of the Chatham-Siler City Advanced Manufacturing site off of US 64 in the western part of the county.
It is also the only unused mega site in the area.
In March, the Vietnamese Electric Vehicle company, VinFast, announced they were moving to the 2,100-acre Triangle Innovation Point mega site in the southern part of the county.
They plan to bring 7,500 jobs to the area.
The CAM site is also 16 miles away from Asheboro.
In the budget, leaders recommended spending $55 million to work with Asheboro city leaders to help with infrastructure at the plant.
“I don’t have specific numbers on salaries or production, but my guess is millions of dollars, or tens of millions of dollars in impact each year,” said local economist Mike Walden.
That’s if the computer chip company will call Chatham County home.
The area could soon be exploding with new businesses, new jobs and new money.
“You get payroll from workers, you get suppliers… often times they pop up around the factory, so you get some downstream impacts,” Walden explained. “Both of those contribute to a lot of spending in the area. Potentially every sector of the economy would be impacted.”
Chatham County leaders are looking forward to the change.
“Just the excitement of the jobs and the boost to the economy, I mean it’s amazing,” said Cindy Poindexter, the President of the Chatham County Chamber of Commerce.
She said the area is close to universities and airports.
Poindexter told CBS 17 the Central Carolina Community College is already prepared to help train skilled workers.
“They bring in people and they partner… they are doing everything they can to make sure we have the workforce,” added Poindexter.
In the budget, North Carolina leaders also set aside funds to identify and create five more mega sites to assist with economic development across the state.
The “Megasite Readiness Program” will put state officials in position to entire more companies to make the move.
“Previously if a firm like this was coming, one of the things they’d have to worry about about is ‘Okay, now we have to find the land, we have to buy the land and assemble it,'” said Walden. “[These mega sites] have worked very well for North Carolina. One of the benefits of doing that is the state can try to attract economic development to particular locations.”
Walden told CBS 17 one of the good reasons why Chatham County is a good spot for these plants is because it’s on the outskirts of the Triangle.
He said one of the downsides of rapid economic growth is the effect is has on the community’s traffic congestion and housing prices, but because of where these mega sites are, the problems should be largely mitigated.