GEORGETOWN - American Gypsum will benefit from millions of dollars in tax incentives and free rent for four years while offering some of the highest manufacturing salaries in Georgetown County for a plant expected to break ground in the next six months, company and local officials said Monday.

Executive officers from American Gypsum, county leaders and S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford officially announced that the company would invest $125 million in a new plant near the Winyah Generating Station in Georgetown. It is the company's first push to expand into the Southeast.

American Gypsum nonsalaried jobs pay up to $50,000 a year; salaried positions pay up to $85,000. American Gypsum plans to invest about $125 million and create about

100 jobs in the plant and another 200 outside jobs related to production, Economic Development Director Al Burns said.

"These salaries will top Georgetown Steel," said Jeepy Ford, a member of Georgetown County's Economic Development Commission. The steel mill pays about $15 to $20 an hour plus profit sharing to its steel workers.

Also, the plant will help diversify the economic dependence Georgetown has had on Georgetown Steel and International Paper Co., county officials said. International Paper employs more than 600 workers, and International Steel Group had rehired nearly 300 steel workers by the end of 2004 at the reopened plant downtown.

The American Gypsum construction site will be half a mile long, covering at least 50 acres near the Winyah Generating Station, and construction is expected to be complete by early 2007.

Perks for American Gypsum

The county is decreasing the tax rate for American Gypsum from 10 percent to 6 percent for 20 years, but officials say the tax payments still will add up.

The company's tax payments will add at least $1 million in tax revenues in Georgetown County, Burns said.

About 70 percent of the money generated from the property taxes will go to the Georgetown County Schools, he said.

"For the county, that $1 million in taxes is roughly the equivalent of a mill, so that's a nice addition to our tax base," Burns said.

Bill Crompton, director of facilities for the Georgetown County Schools, said the additional tax money will help the school system cope with an expected population increase.

The Georgetown County Board of Education has not raised millage in the past several years but is dealing with rising costs of fuel and the need for more classroom space on the Waccamaw Neck, he said.

The additional tax money will help offset costs associated with growth in Georgetown County, Crompton said.

"Those new jobs will cause more people to move to the county, many with children," Crompton said. "The impacts of growth will be on everything from police to fire to garbage pickup. It just won't be the school district."

Santee Cooper offered American Gypsum land adjoining the Winyah power plant rent free for the first four years, said Laura Varn, spokeswoman for Santee Cooper.

The company is paying about $600,000 for improving an access road leading to the plant and rerouting transmission lines, she said.

Company growth

American Gypsum, which is owned by Eagle Materials, has other plants in New Mexico, Colorado and Oklahoma.

Future expansion plans for other parts of the Northeast haven't been finalized, said Steve Rowley, president and chief executive officer of the company.

The plant construction in Georgetown will give American Gypsum a 10 percent share of the wallboard market instead of 8 percent, he said.

"We'll be producing 10 percent of all wallboard in the United States," he said. "We'll continue to expand in the next five years, with two to three more wallboard plants."

The company has had an effect on other communities where it has plants, including Gypsum, Colo., a growing town of about 4,000 in the Rocky Mountains, town officials said.

Effects in Georgetown

The expected jobs won't completely reverse Georgetown's unemployment situation, which at 11.9 percent is above the state's average, which was 7.1 percent in February, according to the State Employment Security Commission. The national unemployment rate rose slightly in February to 5.4 percent.

Officials think the plant could enhance the area's ability to attract business.

Georgetown County has struggled to recover from the recession and competition with foreign manufacturers.

The location chosen by plant officials has a natural gas line nearby and a steady supply of gypsum to make the wallboard, said Jim Jerow, chairman of the Georgetown County Economic Development Commission.

Gypsum is a byproduct of the scrubbing process at Winyah Generating Station. The plant also will use steam from the power plant to manufacture the wallboard.

The Center for Accelerated Technology Training, based in Columbia, will work with American Gypsum to ensure there is a trained work force available in Georgetown County, Regional Director Greg Mitchell said.

No agreement has been reached with the S.C. Employment Security Commission in Georgetown to handle hiring, Director Brenda England said.

American Gypsum will have an initial investment of $125 million.

The facility is expected to be operational by 2007.

Eighty nonsalaried positions will have a pay range from $40,000 to $50,000.

Santee Cooper currently produces about 300,000 tons of gypsum annually as a byproduct of its pollution scrubbers. When the Cross Generating Station is complete in 2009, Santee Cooper will produce 1 million tons of gypsum each year.

American Gypsum is the nation's fifth-largest producer of wallboard. The parent company, Eagle Materials, manufactures and distributes cement, gypsum wallboard, recycled paperboard and concrete.