FLORIDA — Construction for the $91 million 750,000 square-foot Dollar General distribution center began on Wednesday.
The project is the 16th distribution center Dollar General has built in the U.S. and is expected to create approximately 400 jobs in Montgomery County, as well as about 200 temporary construction jobs.
Dollar General spokeswoman Cyrstal Ghassemi said if the weather enables a swift construction of the facility the company hopes to begin hiring employees for the distribution center by the summer of 2018. Ghassemi said Dollar General is not yet ready to release figures on how much entry-level positions at the center will pay.
In December, Montgomery County received a $1.5 million Regional Economic Development award to help pay for upgrades to Route 5S and the Florida Business Park to accommodate the new Dollar General Distribution plant.
In a statement released Wednesday Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos praised Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York’s Empire State Development Corp. and Montgomery County leaders for helping to support the project.
“Dollar General is looking forward to adding another state-of-the-art and highly-efficient distribution center to support our growing store network in both New York and throughout the northeast,” Vasos stated in the news release.
Construction of the Dollar General Distribution Center represents a significant economic development win for Montgomery County, which had been in competition with Saratoga County for the center.
Ghassemi said a number of factors played a role in Dollar General’s decision to build the distribution plant in Montgomery County, including the available workforce and the site’s proximity to the New York state Thruway. Some additional factors that may have played a role include delays involving wetlands issues in Saratoga County as well Montgomery County offering a larger, longer payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement – a 15-year deal estimated to save Dollar General about $15 million.
The Montgomery County PILOT agreement calls for Dollar General to pay taxes at 25 percent of its assessed value for years three, four and five of the agreement, and then in year six, it jumps to 50 percent of its assessed value, for approximately $1 million in tax revenue. The plant would stay taxed at 50 percent of its value for years seven, eight, nine and 10 of the agreement, and then increase to 75 percent of its assessed value in year 11, for a projected $1.5 million in tax revenues. It would stay at 75 percent from years 11 to 15 before rising to being taxed at 100 percent of its value after that.
According to the company, when fully operational, the distribution center is expected to supply products to approximately 800 Dollar General stores in the northeastern states that Dollar General operates, including 360 stores in New York state which have more than 3,000 employees.
