CoffeeTech unsuccessful in creating business in Seguin
(Seguin) – A company that had been brewing for a future in Seguin is no more. Josh Schneuker, the executive director for the Seguin Economic Development Corporation, says unfortunately, CoffeeTech Industries which was planning to bring the innovative company to Seguin has reportedly pulled the plug on the project after unsuccessfully obtaining the funding necessary to do business.
Schneuker made the announcement to members of the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court and asked that they terminate the tax abatement that had originally been approved with the coffee manufacturer.
“We began working with Coffee Tech back in August/September 2019. We worked the project for several months. We were eventually notified that we were a short listed for the project. We were competing with a site in San Antonio and also a site in the Augusta, Georgia area. In order to get that project over the finish line, the EDC was going to leverage land that we owned within the Rio Nogales Industrial Park and then we also assembled tax abatement agreements with the county and city to help put together that local incentive package to help recruitment the project to Seguin and Guadalupe County. Back in January of 2020, we took action to approve the tax abatement agreement not only for the county, but the city did as well and the EDC also approve their portion of the incentive package which was the land that was going to be provided to Coffee Tech,” said Schneuker
Schneuker says since the beginning, the company faced obstacles in securing funding. Some of which according to the company were delays due to COVID-19.
Nonetheless, Schneuker says the EDC did the best it could to amend its agreements with CoffeeTech and provide a little more time for the company to fund the project. He says in the end, the EDC, the city along with the county did all that it could to help make this project happen.
“Finally in February of 2021, we came back to the commissioner’s court, we had to do some minor amendments to the agreement that was approved back in July of 2020, kind of pushing back some dates as we had already went past the original construction start date for the project so we amended that. The city and EDC followed suit on that as well. Really, in late March, we got word from the company, their CEO, that the funding that they thought was in place had essentially fallen apart and they were in kind of scramble mode at that time to figure out any last-minute way to get the funding in place for the project. They worked I think every avenue that they could and really could not find a way to successful fund the project and get it over the finish line, so they let us know that they had essentially terminated their funding efforts and put the project on hold indefinitely,” said Schneuker.
Originally, CoffeeTech was to build a new 112,000 square foot state of the art building on a 33-acre site situated between 8th Street and Guadalupe Street just south of Interstate 10. The project was estimated to represent a capital investment of at least $55 million and result in the creation of approximately 91 new jobs.
Schenuker says to have a business deal end up this way is rare for the city. However, he says things like this do happen. Reassuring him of that fact is Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher who applauds Schneuker and all those who were involved in initially recruiting the company to Seguin.
“I think it was the right company, the right time, the right executives that they put together from other companies to start something up, it was just funding that didn’t become available. As you said, we are so used to being successful in economic development here in our community and in our county, that this is pretty uncommon, but it does happen from time to time,” said Kutscher. “Like the stars just didn’t align. It doesn’t mean that there is not tomorrow. This one just didn’t happen. I just want to say thank you because you did everything you possibly could to help and come back and revise agreements, give time, work with them, exhaust every effort we possibly could to make it successful but it just didn’t work out.”
Components of the local incentive package included a land grant by the SEDC, a 10-year-old partial tax abatement by the city of Seguin at an average abatement value of 60 percent and a five-year partial tax abatement by the county at an average value of 50 percent.
Schneuker says although this project has failed, there is already futture business prospects in the works to help continue the progress of the city’s economic climate.