Golding Barge Line plans to begin construction on a new office building at the foot of Lee Street by this time next year and is seeking a property tax break to ease costs.

An abatement of property taxes to Vicksburg and Warren County to ease costs of building a two- to four-story building would speed up job creation at the Vicksburg-based shipper and help the company add three vessels by early 2014, company officials told the Warren County Board of Supervisors on Monday.

“We’re in the middle of adding about 50 people,” said Austin Golding, the firm’s marketing, sales and customer service manager. “You always hear that term ‘adding jobs.’ Well, we’re adding careers.”

State law allows cities and counties to abate taxes for up to seven years for businesses and historic properties to promote either commercial development or historic preservation. The abatement does not cover taxes due to school districts. It covers improvements or new structures. City ordinances mandate minimum investments of $100,000 for a three-year abatement, $150,000 for a five-year break and $300,000 for the full seven.

No formal application to abate the company for a new structure has been filed yet with either the county board or the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen. Golding and his father, Steve Golding, the company’s president, pitched details of the expansion during Monday’s informal session as the next step in a process that included the city zoning board’s renewal of a special exception in June to allow the company to keep a pair of double-wide trailers on its property at 101 Lee St. The Mississippi River’s historic flood in 2011 surrounded the modular building and forced operations to higher ground until the water receded. A new structure would be built to withstand another flood, Austin Golding said.

Supervisors responded favorably to the company’s verbal request, which came without a timetable for applying. Board President Bill Lauderdale told the Goldings the board would do “whatever it can” to help the company once it did.

The company employs about 125, from deckhands to captains, and ships mainly petrochemical products on the Mississippi and other major U.S. waterways. Economic impact and career advancement alone make the project and potential tax break worthwhile, Steve Golding said.

“I’ll remember that young man or young lady driving into that parking lot for the first time in a beat-up pickup truck living in a mobile home out on some ridge somewhere,” he said. “Then, five and a half, six years later, they’re coming in there with a new pickup truck, living in a brick home and their family’s well taken care of. Now, that’s what makes me excited.”