The city of Kannapolis [NC] may soon be home to a $16.1 million Haas CNC Racing facility. The city and the company are in the process of negotiating a deal that would move Haas CNC Racing [#0 NetZero-BestBuy Chevy with driver Mike Bliss] from its current 40,000-square-foot Harrisburg facility to a 140,000-square-foot facility in the Kannapolis Gateway Business Park. Negotiations have been under way for weeks, and the city is in the final stages of negotiating the sale of 23 acres of land to the racing company, said Kannapolis City Manager Mike Legg. Its a huge project for us, Legg said. The Cabarrus Regional Partnership has been working with the city and the racing company to initiate and fine-tune the deal. A public hearing will be held Thursday with the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners to consider an incentive grant for the Haas CNC Racing under the countys Industrial Development Program. Haas CNC Racing teams include the #0 NASCAR Nextel Series car driven by Mike Bliss and the #44 NASCAR Busch Series car driven by Justin Labonte. Were confident that we will finalize this land purchase with the City of Kannapolis at their Gateway Business Park site, said Joe Custer, general manager of Haas CNC Racing. The sites location on (N.C.) highway 73 and its accessibility to I-85 and the Lowes Motor Speedway area makes it very attractive to our organization. John Cox, CEO of Cabarrus Regional Partnership, said the firm would employee about 100 people at its new facility. Haas CNC Racing is owned by Gene Haas. Haas founded Haas Automation, the largest machine tool manufacturer in the country, in 1983. Haas Automation is based in Oxnard, Calif., and has partnerships with NASCAR race teams, including Hendrick Motorsports. Cabarrus County manager John Day said, if approved, Haas CNC Racing could get an incentive grant for 50 percent of its tax bill for the next three or four years. The incentive greatly helped to attract the company to the area.(Independent Tribune)(7-9-2005)
