HENRY COUNTY, Va. – In 2021, it was announced that Schock GmbH, the inventor of quartz composite sinks, was investing $85 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing operation in Henry County. Now, that’s not the case. The company opted not to expand its operations into the U.S.
“We were certainly disappointed, anytime you have that big of capital investment and there were jobs lost out on it, it’s not the greatest news to hear. But we understand, and the company was forthcoming and worked with us the entire way,” said Henry County PIO Brandon Martin.
Martin said that Schock made around $750,000 in improvements in the building since the initial sale in 2021 and now the facility is worth more money.
“In total, it’s appraised at about $5 million right now, so it was originally built for $3.2 million so the value has certainly gone up, and we got it back at the sale price as we sold it. So overall, not too bad of a deal,” he said.
A similar situation happened on a larger scale in Wythe County. As we’ve reported, a $700 million development that was expected to bring in 2,500 new jobs was put on hold after the glove company, Blue Star NBR, said the promised government funding never came through. That project still sits in limbo.
While Henry County seemingly came out of this on top financially in its situation, Martin is still hopeful another business can come in and bring jobs. He said he’s seen lots of success lately with economic development, so they’re hopeful they’ll get some traction reselling the building.