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The Beaufort County Commissioners and Washington City Council have approved amended performance grants for Pamlico Yachtworks.

The total amount of the performance grant from the county is now $110,000 to be conditionally awarded over a five-year period; the city’s performance grant is now $90,000 to be awarded in that same time frame.

Both grants were originally going to total $155,000.

The amendments are necessary because Pamlico Yachtworks in late 2020 moved from Beaufort County’s Industry-Ready Building to 230 Clarks Neck Road in Washington, an industrial property formerly occupied by Parker Hannifin. The company made that move to “acquire more space at a reasonable price,” Beaufort County Economic Development Director Martyn Johnson said.

In order to receive the performance grant funding from either party, Pamlico Yachtworks must meet certain capital investment and job creation goals.  The amended grant contract states that over the next five years Pamlico Yachtworks will invest $9,800,000 in building renovation and equipment costs at its new site, and the company will also create 166 new jobs at an average annual wage of $41,073.

Johnson said Pamlico Yachtworks currently employs 40 people in Beaufort County, and he thinks the 166-job benchmark will be reached in less than five years.

“I think it’s a good thing for the citizens of Washington to have an opportunity to make $41,000 — that is a tremendous jump,” Washington Mayor Pro Tem Richard Brooks said during Monday’s City Council meeting. “I think we have people that are capable to be able to learn how to do that job.”

“This project is very helpful — not only creating the jobs, but also taking a very large (industrial) building off the register of empty buildings,” Johnson said.

The industrial property Pamlico Yachtworks moved to includes approximately 185,000 square feet of usable space.