(Spotsylvania)- From Spotsylvania County:
Spotsylvania County announces approval of a new agreement that will bring 79 high tech jobs to the county over the next ten years.
HDT Expeditionary Systems, Incorporated, has signed a Performance Agreement with Spotsylvania County that includes up to $1.25 million in economic grants and tax incentives to locate the new jobs in the county.
The Delaware-based company already operates a military systems research, product development and engineering services business in the Lee’s Hill area of Spotsylvania. In 2011, the company received a $100,000 grant from the Authority as an incentive to locate the company’s operations in the county, maintaining at least 30 full-time employees through the year 2020.
Under the new agreement, HDT Expeditionary Systems will relocate several offices in the region into a new HDT “Battle Lab and Advanced Development” (BLADE) Center, expanding its current business operations in the county by signing a ten-year lease for at least 40,000 square feet on approximately eight acres as part of a $9 million build-to-suit commercial development project located on Lansdowne Road.
The company plans to add an additional 20 full-time employees to its operations in the county as part of the project in its first year and increase the number of full-time employees by 5% each year over the next ten years. Under the plan, the company would hire 50 full-time employees in its first year with an average base salary of $70,000. By the tenth year, that number would grow to 79 full-time employees with an average base salary of $91,334.
As part of the plan, the company will receive a grant to help fund a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Internship Program that will include eight, paid yearly internships. At least two of those internships would be ear-marked for Spotsylvania residents interested in STEM careers.
The agreement stipulates HDT must have the new operation up and running no later than December 31, 2018.