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(Hendersonville, NC) – The Henderson County Board of Commissioners held a meeting tonight in which it unanimously approved a $3.75 million incentive package to be used in negotiations with an unnamed company.

That company is considering building a facility that will end up in projected expenditures of around $115 million and 125 new jobs. The economic figures and project description have led some to believe that the incentive package is tailored to Sierra Nevada Brewing or possibly New Belgium Brewing. The specifics of the incentive package were not revealed.

One Board member leaked a couple clues.

He said that this company is “involved with” an organization known as Golden LEAF. Golden LEAF has granted over $500 million to over 1,000 companies in the past decade.

The other thing he said was that the Board was just trying to help people in the town of Mills River. I don’t know much about Mills River other than there are about 11,000 people who live there. The only reason a Board member would mention Mills River is if that is the location of the planned facility or if there is a manufacturing facility there that stands to benefit from this mystery deal.

In doing a search for Mills River properties, there is one right south of Mills River in a tiny town called Horse Shoe. 27 acres of greenfield land priced at a little less than $5 million. To put that in perspective, the current Sierra Nevada property in Chico, California, is 40 acres. There are a number of properties available in the area that would be fit for a large brewery, at least from a size perspective.

Another Board member went on to say that this company could potentially be the major employer in the county. Multiple Board members mentioned that they need to do what they can to win a “competition” with other states and counties

As mentioned in the initial report leading up to this meeting, it took Amazon and Spartanburg, South Carolina, less than two weeks to reach an agreement after the county board approved a similar incentives package.

Then again, maybe this has nothing to do with Sierra Nevada or New Belgium…

…stay tuned.