Clay County has landed a deal to bring an international avocado processing company and 262 jobs to Green Cove Springs.
Bill Garrison, President of the Clay County Economic Development Corp., said Thursday that Santa Paula, Calif.-based Calavo Growers Inc. has leased a 208,000-square-foot distribution center formerly used by Food Lion. The publicly traded company clears $782.5 million in yearly revenue, according to its 2014 annual report.
The Clay County Commission in June approved an incentives package worth $78,497 to bring the company to Northeast Florida. The package included a new “large primary employer grant,” designed for Calavo and future companies like it.
Garrison called winning the deal “huge,” and said it was the largest project he’d been part of.
“Typically we attract companies with 10 to 50 employees,” he said. “To compete for 262 jobs over five years — that’s a big deal to any kind of community.”
Calavo was seeking a distribution center in the Southeast. Clay County was in close competition with another community near Atlanta, Garrison said.
The lease rate was a driving factor in the decision, but Garrison said Clay County demonstrated it was also a business-friendly community. The incentives accomplished that.
Florida charges a 6 percent tax on commercial leases. Because it is the only state in the U.S. to do so, Calavo failed to include the tax, about $100,000 per year in this case, in its pro forma. The company asked the county for incentives to help offset that cost, Garrison said.
Clay responded by approving the new kind of grant.
According to legislation filed with the county, the grant gives Calavo a 75 percent reduction in its property taxes for five years and a 50 percent reduction for two years. That works out to be about $10,000 per year the first five years and $6,500 for two years.
In order to be eligible, a company must employ a minimum of 150 people in primary jobs as well as at least 10 additional jobs that pay in excess of 101 percent of the county’s average wage.
Primary jobs are defined as those that generate goods and services that are exported outside the community.
Calavo expects to create 10 executive jobs exceeding the average Clay County wage of $32,428. The remaining jobs will pay 125 percent of the minimum wage in Florida, county documents said.
Clay County also awarded Calavo a job-training incentive grant worth $15,000.
Founded in 1924, Calavo is a global avocado-industry leader, according to its website.
The company also procures and markets fresh produce items ranging from tomatoes to tropical produce.
Its Calavo Foods business segment manufactures and distributes guacamole, guacamole hummus, salsa and tortilla chips under the Calavo brand name.
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