(The Center Square) – Lured by a grant of $1.46 million, a maker of synthetic leather for automobile interiors plans a $51 million factory in North Carolina.

The joint project by TMG & Haartz Solutions LLC, will create 125 jobs over the next five years with average salaries of $64,218 annually, they say. The new factory will be built in the Rutherford County community of Bostic on a site that was previously a plant owned by Miliken.

Customers for the synthetic leather include Mercedes Benz, Volvo, BMW, GM, Toyota, and Ford, according to the state.

Competitors for the project included Massachusetts and Georgia, but North Carolina won in part because of lower land prices, state officials said Monday.

Rutherford County has a population of 65,507 and a median household income of $47,557, which is about one-third less than the state median of $77,719, according to the U.S. Census.

Economists question the effectiveness of financial incentives to private businesses to expand or come to a new state. How wages are introduced is against the context that a few corporate leaders at a site can skew the average higher while it would not have the same impact on the median wage.

The state Job Development Investment Grant will be allocated over 12 years and requires that the company produces the promised number of jobs.

TMG was founded in Portugal in 1937. Haartz was founded in the early 20th century in Massachusetts and has plants in Germany and China.

“From our roots in Portugal to this new chapter in the United States, we have always believed in building relationships based on trust, respect, and shared purpose,” Isabel Furtado, board member at TMG Group and a board member and CEO at TMG Automotive said in a statement. “The relationship between Gonçalves and Haartz families is more than a business alliance – it is a story of mutual respect, shared values, and a common vision for the future of mobility.”

The North Carolina Economic Investment Committee on Monday also approved $11.2 million in grant for a project by Jabil, a Florida-based Fortune 500 company that makes circuit boards and other computer components.

The company is considering a $264 million facility in Salisbury to produce high-performance hardware critical for powering artificial intelligence workloads for companies, the state said. The project would create 1,181 jobs over five years paying an average of $62,034

Florida is also competing for the project and has also offered financial incentives, according to North Carolina state officials. The company’s headquarters is located in St. Petersburg, giving Flroida a “vested” interest in supporting the expansion, according to North Carolina officials.

North Carolina has an advantage of infrastructure that is already in place and “strong engagement” from the state’s Department of Commerce, the state said.