State economic development officials approved a tax incentive Thursday designed to draw a new pipe facility to Iron County.

The Governor's Office of Economic Development Board, meeting in Cedar City, approved an $857,000 tax-rebate incentive for Charlotte Pipe and Foundry.

Utah is competing with Arizona for the project, which would create 40 new full-time jobs, with the potential for increasing to a total of 100 jobs, according to a GOED release. GOED documents did not give a timetable for when the company will decide where to locate.

An executive summary of the proposal said projected salaries would be more than 150 percent of the Iron County median wage, and the project was expected to generate $2.85 million in new state tax revenue over 10 years.

"Cedar City economic development professionals have been working with the company and are excited to have a company of the quality of Charlotte Pipe coming to Iron County," the GOED release said. "The company is one of the largest manufacturers of pipe in the United States."

Charlotte Pipe and Foundry was founded in 1901 by W. Frank Dowd in Charlotte, N.C., according to the GOED summary. The company is still owned and operated by the Dowd family and employs more than 1,400 people at plants nationwide.

The state's incentive would be in the form of a return on 30 percent of new state revenues over a 10-year period. The company would be required to keep operations in Utah for at least 10 years.

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E-mail: gkratz@desnews.com