New incentives details for 1,200-job Rock Hill project ahead of company being ID’d

New details continue to emerge on the $1.5 billion biopharmaceutical project set to replace a portion of the failed Carolina Panthers development in Rock Hill, including how decades of tax incentives will work.

The project already has a proposed fee it would pay in place of taxes, aimed at reducing costs for the unnamed company. Rock Hill now looks to discount that fee in order to bring the company here.

Rock Hill City Council has two votes Monday night, June 22, on Project Palmetto Rock, a company set to bring more than 1,200 jobs off Exit 81 of Interstate 77. It’s part of Palmetto Research Park, the city-owned property where the Charlotte-based football team once had its headquarters and practice facility under construction.

Project Palmetto Rock is both a headquarters and manufacturing site proposal.

A resolution up for vote Monday offers some new details on the financial incentives used to lure the project. The company would be eligible for a 50% discount on the negotiated fee it would pay in place of taxes for up to 10 years.

The discount would come through special source revenue credits, or reimbursements for capital investment.

The company could get a 35% discount through the revenue credits for the following 10 years, and 20% off for the following 10 years. The revenue credits would expire after 30 years total. The city resolution doesn’t list a total value for the incentives.

Both a fee in place of taxes, and the revenue credits against that fee, are commonly used economic incentives in South Carolina where the industrial tax rate of 10.5% is more than double the rates of neighboring states and counties.

The fee agreement with Project Palmetto Rock would cut its tax assessment rate to 4% for 40 years, York County Economic Development Director Mitch Miller said last week. Money paid as a fee would go to the Rock Hill School District (62%), Rock Hill (24%) and York County (14%), York County Councilman Watts Huckabee said last week.

For the life of the incentive deal, Project Palmetto Rock would generate $362 million for those groups, Miller said. Unless a new incentive deal replaces it, the project would begin paying traditional taxes once the 40-year term expires.

The county and city fee incentive is unrelated to a $65-million state incentive for Project Palmetto Rock.

Project Palmetto Rock is a 50-acre proposal within the more than 200-acre Palmetto Research Park. It’s separate from a 25-acre plan where Novant Health will build a $300 million medical campus.

Project Palmetto Rock will go at the corner where Palmetto Parkway meets the interstate, according to a master plan map submitted to the city. It has two access points, one off Hiram Way and the other aligned with an interchange ramp onto the interstate.

The project leaves property to the south and west for additional development within the business park that city officials expect to bring life science and advanced manufacturing businesses.

A resolution to include Project Palmetto Rock in a business park with incentives can be finalized Monday night. A rezoning of the 50 acres is up for initial approval, but will take a second vote and public hearing.

York County Council has a public hearing on June 29 for its role in the economic incentive deal, which could be finalized this summer. The company behind Project Palmetto Rock is expected to be named at the public hearing next Monday in York.

This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 11:30 AM with the headline “New incentives details for 1,200-job Rock Hill project ahead of company being ID’d.”