MORGANTON — Burke County has put a formal public-hearing notice on the books for an economic development package aimed at an unidentified manufacturer code-named Project Ice Bear.
Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 158-7.1, the Board of Commissioners noticed a hearing for 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, in the County Board Room at the Burke County Services Building, 110 North Green Street, Entrance E, in Morganton. Meetings are streamed on the county’s BurkeCountyNC YouTube channel.
What the county’s notice says the project would bring
The county’s notice describes a manufacturing company proposing a new facility in Burke County. The company would invest about $16.9 million over three years and create about 37 jobs with an average annual salary of $64,716, according to the posted notice.
The proposed incentive
Subject to public input at the hearing, commissioners proposed entering contracts to reimburse the company up to 40% of ad valorem tax revenues generated by net new real and personal property the company (or an affiliate or lessor) places at the Burke facility, for a period not to exceed three years.
The notice estimates net new taxable value of about $16.9 million and a total cash grant of about $87,270 over three years, with the actual amount depending on taxes generated. Annual grants would be appropriated from the county’s General Fund Reserve.
The company is not named in the notice. Catawba First News has not independently confirmed a street address, building size, or whether the plant would sit at Hickory Regional Airport — claims that appeared only in tip coverage, not in Burke’s official hearing text.
Earlier coverage: Commissioners terminate Wanzl incentives · Goldhofer at Trivium in Hickory
Source note (required on publish)
Tip that surfaced this story: a local news report on a manufacturing investment near Hickory airport. Verified independently from Burke County’s official Notice of Public Hearing — Economic Development Incentive (Project Ice Bear), posted Sept. 10, 2026. Airport location and any post-hearing vote were not confirmed from primary county documents at draft time and were omitted from the article body.
