Berkshire Hathaway, the giant headed by Warren Buffett, is the company making a major investment on Jackson County property.
Members of the West Virginia Economic Development Authority formally agreed to sell the former site of Century Aluminum to Berkshire Hathaway Energy during a meeting this morning, publicly stating the company’s name for the first time.
Gov. Jim Justice and state officials officially announced today in a ceremony at the state Capitol. “West Virginia is really on the move, and I am really, really proud,” Justice said during the announcement.
“This is the big deal.”
The manufacturer at the site of more than 2,000 acres is Precision Castparts/Timet, which Berkshire Hathaway bought in 2015. Solar power will be supplied to the titanium and aerospace company by Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
Legislators, in special session, swiftly approved a bill to establish a couple of districts in West Virginia where one unit of a company could produce alternative energy for sale to a second entity, like the setup in Jackson County envisions.
The deal calls for 200 jobs within three years, although officials have said there is potential for 1,000. Overall, it’s a $500 million project, officials said, with the possibility of attracting more manufacturers as tenants at the site.
“This is just the beginning,” Alicia Knapp, president and chief executive of BHE Renewables, said during today’s announcement at the state Capitol.
That’s the hope of state officials as well.
“This will be a magnet like none other to attract additional business and industry,” said state Development Director Mitch Carmichael, who grew up in Jackson County.
Bo Hartley, an EDA board member from Jackson County, gave some perspective about what this development will mean.
“I’m old enough to remember when Jackson County had nothing. It was a farming community. I remember what it was like to have Kaiser Aluminum dropped out of the sky and what it did to that community, what it did to me personally. My wife of over 50 years, her family came from Washington State for Kaiser Aluminum,” he said, referring to Century’s predecessor.
“What an opportunity. What a gift.”
The series of events leading to this moment began, Carmichael said, with a letter sent by Senator Glenn Jeffries, D-Putnam, to Warren Buffett. That led to multiple visits by Berkshire Hathaway to identify an appropriate site, Carmichael said.
“It is only through the efforts of Senator Jeffries that we’re at this point,” Carmichael said.
Jeffries was among the speakers at today’s announcement. He remembered thinking “We’ve got so much potential here that we need to be reaching out to investors all across the country.”
That thought led to his letter, Jeffries said, recalling that it went out to nine billionaires in the United States. “I didn’t think any of them would read the letter; I thought it would go straight into the trash can,” he said. But at 1:50 on a Thursday, he got a series of calls on his phone from numbers identified with Berkshire Hathaway. “And I fell straight to my knees.”