Newsletter about the Special City Council meeting of June 25, 2015 - Blue Bloodhound LLP Incentives Agreement

The Hickory City Council held a meeting early Thursday Morning. There should be a Hickory Inc. video up later today and I will post it ASAP. Notes about this meeting are provided below. It was a rather short and to the point meeting. There was no agenda provided online for this meeting and the meeting was scheduled on short notice.



I am still working on the information and notes from the special meeting that took place this past Monday morning related to the Lackey Conservancy located at Geitner Park by the Lake in Northwest Hickory.

The meeting that took place this morning provided details about the company Blue Bloodhound LLP, which will be locating in the newly renovated Moretz Mill building. Blue Bloodhound is a trucking software/IT company, which provides a service similar to Uber. This company helps in establishing a cluster node related to the transportation/trucking industry here in Hickory, with Transportation Insight being located only a few blocks away in the currently under reconstruction Lyerly Mill building.

Blue Bloodhound is a division of  Greene-Group, which is located in Davidson, NC. The jobs offered by this company will average $75,000+ per year. The company is investing $400,000 in software and IT support to start the business and looks to create 191 jobs over the next 3 years (per the agreement). The incentives provided by the City of Hickory equate to $800 per job, which matches the company's agreement with Catawba County. A State of North Carolina economic incentives agreement has already been announced as moving forward by Governor Pat McCrory.

The company is looking to hire people within the City of Hickory and there are built in criteria in the incentives agreement meant to ensure that happens. The company is interested in hiring mature people with experience in the IT field and also has a desire to have partnerships with local "Mom and Pop" Transportation/Trucking companies.

There were two readings on this matter, which allows the agreement to move forward immediately. The documents included in this public hearing included a resolution and the economic incentives agreement.

Blue Bloodhound Plans Hickory, North Carolina, Operations Center - Area Development Online News Desk - (06/23/2015)

Software startup to create 191 jobs in Hickory - Charlotte Business Journal - David Harris - June 23, 2015