Ingevity Corp. broke ground Tuesday morning on its new global headquarters near North Charleston’s Park Circle, six days after the specialty chemicals maker said it would move its leadership and business teams there and add at least 100 jobs.
The ceremony was scheduled for 9 a.m. at 4920 O’Hear Ave., The Post and Courier reported last week. Photos posted by the City of North Charleston show guests seated under a tent and participants in hard hats turning dirt with ceremonial shovels.
Ingevity had said it would donate $100 to Charleston Promise Neighborhood for every guest who attended, up to $10,000, the newspaper reported. A city photo from the event shows a $10,000 Ingevity check made out to the organization and dated July 31.
The headquarters will be a 110,000-square-foot building on a former brownfield site. It will cost $20 million, with another $5 million going toward an upfit for the new workers, The Post and Courier reported, citing a news release. The building was designed by LS3P and will be built by Weaver Capital Partners of Atlanta and WECCO Development of Charleston.
Construction is expected to start late this fall, with the building scheduled to open in 2020, according to the newspaper.
What moves, and what stays
Ingevity is now headquartered in the Ingevity Technical Center at 5255 Virginia Ave. in North Charleston. It will move its leadership, business and nontechnical support functions and business development teams to the new building, with the relocation expected to begin in April 2020, according to a July 25 announcement from Gov. Henry McMaster’s office.
The company’s technical teams will stay at the technical center, which will become laboratory space and offices for innovation and development, the announcement said. The technical center also houses one of the company’s manufacturing plants and is less than a mile from the new site, The Post and Courier reported.
Ingevity will invest $5 million in the project, according to the state. Hiring for the new positions is already underway.
The state Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits for the project. Charleston County received a $100,000 Set Aside grant to help pay for real property improvements, the governor’s office said.
‘Growing our roots’
“Ingevity has flourished in the North Charleston community for more than 70 years,” Ingevity President and CEO Michael Wilson said in the announcement. “As the largest publicly traded company by revenues in the Charleston region, we are proud to continue growing our roots in this community.”
“Ingevity is a world-class company, and it speaks volumes that they decided to have this high-tech operation right here in South Carolina,” McMaster said.
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey said the city “is proud to be the home to the region’s largest locally headquartered, publicly traded company, a truly community-minded organization.”
Steve Dykes, executive director of Charleston County Economic Development, said locating the headquarters in Park Circle “is a nod to the area’s rich history and will serve as an economic engine, bringing at least 100 jobs to the area.”
A company on the move
Ingevity makes products from pine-tree oil and sawdust that are used in adhesives, cleaners, paints, inks and other goods, The Post and Courier reported. It was a division of MeadWestvaco, now WestRock, until it was spun off as a separate company two years ago.
The company employs about 1,600 people in 25 locations worldwide, including about 500 in North Charleston, according to the newspaper.
The headquarters plan arrived alongside strong results. Ingevity reported second-quarter net sales of $308.6 million on July 25, up 18.6% from $260.3 million a year earlier, and net income of $52.2 million, up 45.8%, the newspaper reported.
The company also has been buying. Earlier this year it closed its first major acquisition, buying Georgia-Pacific’s pine chemicals business for $310 million. Last week it agreed to buy the remaining 30% interest in Purification Cellutions in Waynesboro, Ga., from its partner, Applied Technology Limited Partnership, for $80 million, according to The Post and Courier. That deal is expected to close in the third quarter.
The Waynesboro plant makes honeycomb scrubbers that help cars and trucks meet federal emissions standards and employs about 200 people, the newspaper reported.
