[8/21/01] A Nissan supplier in Warren County will get property tax exemptions and a $650,000 access road under plans OK’d Monday by the Warren County Port Commission.

Calsonic Kansei North America Inc. plans a plant in the Ceres Industrial Park at Flowers to make parts for the Nissan plant being built near Canton.

The company is buying 55 acres in the north part of Ceres for a $17.3 million structure covering 190,000 square feet.

Jimmy Heidel, executive director of the Port Commission, said the plant will start off with 138 employees and have 400 when it is fully operational.

The deed should be finalized by the Port Commission and the county today. Heidel said he expects the business to spend more than $4 million a year in the local economy.

Port commissioners are appointed by county supervisors to develop and manage industrial property in the county at the harbor, at Ceres, which is north of Interstate 20 near the Warren-Hinds line, and elsewhere.

The commission will allocate $150,000, which, along with a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant, will pay for the access road for Calsonic.

“It will entail the four-lane entrance and overlaying the loop,” Heidel said.

Tax exemptions will be granted under state provisions to induce employers to Mississippi by relieving them of property taxes. The exemptions last 10 years, but do not include taxes for support of public schools.

A ground-breaking ceremony for the company is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 4.

Calsonic Kansei is based in Tokyo and dates to 1938 and the founding of the Nihon Radiator Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and to 1956 and the founding of Kanto Seiki Co. Ltd. Calsonic Kansei was formed in 2000 when Calsonic Corp. and Kansei Corp. merged.

The company has about 40 operations in 14 countries.

The company said it plans to begin construction in September and to be operational in April 2002 and fully operational by 2006.

Heidel also told of three new business prospects for Ceres, including another Nissan supplier. He said other road work would have to be done to accommodate more industry as an estimated 130 trucks pass through the area daily already. However, the road work that would require lengthening and straightening the road would need rights-of-way issued by the Port Commission and the county.

In other business, the Port Commission:

Approved the proposed 2001-2002 budget in the amount of $3,451,294. The commissions’ 2000-2001 budget was $3,007,000. The increase in the budget is due to real estate leases, sale of property and interest on investments absent from last year’s budget, and $500,000 has been projected to be spent on capital outlays alone.

Discussed a complaint by the Department of Environmental Quality for illegal dumping at the Old Government Fleet property west of North Washington Street. The board said couches, bed springs and tires were dumped at the property and the DEQ would pursue no further action if the dump is cleaned up and the property is locked.