Aerospace manufacturer Woodward Inc to open Greer SC plant

SPARTANBURG — A Colorado-based aeronautics manufacturing company plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars and create hundreds of new jobs in Spartanburg County after county council approved second reading of a 40-year fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement for the company.
The agreement requires Woodward Inc. to create at least 125 full-time jobs and invest at least $157.4 million in the county.
Documents show the company projects to invest around $196 million and create an estimated 247 full-time jobs.
In return, the county is lowering the tax assessment rate for the property from the normal 10.5 percent assessed for manufacturing down to 4 percent. The county is also providing the company with a special source revenue credit worth $3.25 million over four years.
The agreement ties the project to roughly 100 acres at 8201 Reidville Road in Greer that Columbia-based Red Rock Investment Partners LLC bought in 2022 for $7.2 million. The lot sits across the street from Benore Logistic Systems Inc.
It’s unclear when the company will break ground on the project or what it plans to manufacture. Those details aren’t in the ordinance.
County council members did not discuss the ordinance during the Sept. 15 vote.
County administrator Cole Alverson declined to speak about those specifics in an interview to avoid getting ahead of an announcement from the governor’s office scheduled for the morning of Sept. 16.