JOHNSTOWN - The Fulton County Industrial Development Agency on Tuesday said it received an application for CG Roxane's planned water- bottling plant project in the town of Johnstown, and the IDA scheduled a public hearing for July 11.
IDA Executive Director James Mraz updated his agency on the 176,757-square-foot spring-water bottling facility to be built on a 72-acre parcel on the south side of Watershed Road in the town. The company will rebuild Old Sweet Road to town standards to provide easier access from Route 29. CG Roxane initially will hire 33 people and would hire more than a dozen more when it expands with a proposed second phase that would include a 65,545-square-foot addition for additional warehouse space.
"The total investment is going to be over $25 million," Mraz said. "They'll produce over 1 million bottles of water a day."
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Fulton County IDA Executive Director James Mraz shows the CG Roxane water-bottling site plan to the IDA board Tuesday at the Fort Johnstown Annex. (The Leader-Herald/Michael Anich)
The product will be Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water.
The company has received site-plan review approval from the town Planning Board.
Mraz said the IDA received a project application from the San Francisco-based CG Roxane. The application requests two tax exemptions - a 485-b real estate tax exemption and a sales tax exemption. He said no mortgage recording tax exemption is being requested because there will be no mortgage on the property.
He said the application for tax exemption estimates total expenditures subject to sales tax would be $8.25 million.
"No IDA financing, whatsoever, is being requested as part of this application," he said.
The IDA slated a public hearing for 4 p.m. July 11 at the Town Hall.
"New York state law says you have to have a public hearing on this application for tax exemption," he said.
He said there have been four public meetings on the project and no public opposition has emerged.
As a straight lease project, Mraz said the IDA will require an administrative fee of $20,625. He said CG Roxane requested the application fee be deferred until July 30, 2013.
The company plans to bottle water from a nearby watershed owned by the village of Canajoharie. CG Roxane is also exploring the option of using city of Johnstown water drawn from its town of Johnstown-based watershed, although no agreement has been reached with the city yet.
Michael Anich can be reached at johnstown@leaderherald.com.