Offer sweetened to lure business

KraftMaid Cabinetry said in February it would build a new West Jordan manufacturing facility that would ramp up to about 1,300 workers in four years. Work on the 700,000-square-foot, $106 million facility would likely begin this year, its top executive said, and state officials hailed the action as a feather in the state's economic development hat.

Not so fast.

The Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development Board on Friday voted to boost the incentive to lure the operations to Utah — a surprising move to at least one board member.

"I thought it was a done deal, so I'm a little surprised to hear that it's not a done deal," Clifford White said.

It seems the company is still considering New Mexico as a site, despite being awarded a $2.25 million grant from the Utah Industrial Assistance Fund in November and announcing Utah as the site in February.

"It's still a very competitive situation," board member Mark Howell explained Friday.

The Ohio-based company sought and received on Friday a different Utah incentive. It now would get a tax rebate of up to $3.24 million over 10 years for jobs paying 125 percent of the county median if it kept those operations in Utah at least 10 years.

"This is something really exciting for the state, and we'd really like to see it happen. . . . We think it (the rebate) will close it," Howell said.

Board Chairman David Simmons said deals are never done "until they start building," and New Mexico is still trying to land the operations. "We want to make sure we get it," he said.

Jeff Edwards, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Corp. of Utah, which is handling business recruitment for the state, said the company saw the new legislation creating the tax rebate program and preferred that over the IAF incentive.

"I think they're very committed," Edwards said. "They've spent money already on being here. I think this will help cement and complete this deal and get it done and get them in the ground."

"This (rebate) has become a critical incentive for them," Simmons said, "and we have significant competition."

Simmons also noted KraftMaid likely would have suppliers move in nearby and create as many as 200 jobs. "This is a nice kind of cluster that we end up getting," he said.