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A local manufacturing company is expanding its operations in Beaufort County, utilizing financial incentives from both state and local sources. Pamlico Air, an air filtration manufacturing company with its corporate headquarters in downtown Washington, will expand its manufacturing operations locally, investing $1.4 million in Beaufort County’s economy and adding 39 new positions to the local job market.

According to a press release on the expansion from North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s office, the company will launch a new division to design, develop and produce high-efficiency air filtration products and related equipment for the pharmaceutical, microelectronics, biotech, nuclear and healthcare markets. The company’s headquarters, also located in Washington, will remain at its present location.

“Eastern North Carolina is home to a lot of the Pamlico Air family,” said Travis Stephenson, CEO of Pamlico Air. “Locating our High Purity facility here with our corporate office made sense for lots of reasons. It’s a great fit for us, and Pamlico Air is a great fit for Beaufort County.”

“Pamlico Air is proud to launch our newest and most advanced manufacturing facility right here in Beaufort County. Creating jobs that produce products servicing Fortune 500 accounts right here where a lot of us were born, raised and continue to live with our families is highly satisfying to Pamlico Air management,” added Shawn Windley, chief operations officer of Pamlico Air’s High Purity Division.

According to Beaufort County Economic Development Director Martyn Johnson, the company will locate its operations in Beaufort County’s Industry-Ready Building, a 24,300-square-foot building on Page Road built by the Beaufort County Committee of 100 to help facilitate industrial growth in the county.

“We’ve been working with Pamlico Air since April of this year on trying to define the project and how we could assist them through both state and local incentives,” Johnson said. “This will be the fourth company in our Industry-Ready Building, and in this case it will be a long-term lease.”

Currently, the Industry-Ready Building is occupied by MJM Yachts, which is in the process of securing a new location, Johnson said. Since it was completed in 2018, the building has been the temporary home of three companies so far, as well as an American Red Cross disaster relief effort after Hurricane Florence.

In terms of funding and incentives, Pamlico Air will receive performance-based grants from three sources — a $120,000 grant from the North Carolina Department of Commerce, $70,000 from Beaufort County and $60,000 from the City of Washington. All of those funds are contingent on the company completing capital investments and creating new jobs, which will have an average salary of $38,077.

“We’re ecstatic to have Pamlico Air announce a HEPA filter facility and 39 new jobs in Beaufort County, which is a world leader in the containment and air purification industry,” said Jerry Evans, chairman of the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners. “This will be Pamlico Air’s second facility in Beaufort County, the first being their headquarters, proving they enjoy our friendly community environment and are very much a part of the local drive to improve our county.”

“It’s very exciting,” added Washington City Manager Jonathan Russell. “I think it’s great to see a local business that reaches across the U.S. locating here. It’s good for us here within the industrial park and provides 39 new jobs for the community. We’re happy to have played a role in getting them here.”