The vacant facility is the former distribution center of Richmond, VA-based Heilig-Meyers, a furniture chain that filed for bankruptcy in August 2000.
Meanwhile, locally based STI Knowledge, Inc. is moving into a new 26,000-sf service center in Southfield Industrial Center in Sumter County, several counties north of Thomas. STI provides outsource technical assistance training to corporations.
Key factors in both companies' decisions to locate were incentive packages that included grants from GeorgiaOne Authority. The program channels one-third of the state's tobacco settlement fund into economic development programs for tier-one and tier-two counties. In 2001, the fund totaled $62 million.
Details of the companies' individual incentive packages are undisclosed. In announcing the deals, Governor Roy Barnes emphasized the companies' contribution to job growth in areas where unemployment is high.
The American Signature facility will maintain and ship inventory to its more than 25 existing stores throughout the Southeast, and it is expected to employ 250 when it opens this November.
The STI service center expects to create 150 new jobs within the next 18 months.
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