Photo by Stephen Burnett
A manufacturer of high-tech lithium ion battery systems will move to Cedar Park after City Council on Sept. 4 approved two incentive agreements for the company's headquarters. Voltabox plans to build a $6 million 22,000-square-foot facility in the Scottsdale Crossing industrial park east of Toll 183A, and will maintain for five years at least 10 new skilled jobs. In return the company will be reimbursed 50 percent of its city property taxes for up to five years. The city will also reimburse Voltabox up to $147,908.64 after the firm builds a road between Toll 183A and Scottsdale Drive, said Larry Holt, assistant director of economic development. The funding will come from the city's Economic Development Sales Tax Corporation, or 4A board. "We don't pay our dollars until the company performs," Holt said. The new road, Volta Drive, will be built according to city standards and possibly also Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority standards. It will support the new industrial park, Holt said. On Sept. 4, City Council also approved expanding the Scottsdale Crossing reinvestment zone to include the Voltabox site. In a reinvestment zone a city can encourage specific development with incentives that include tax abatements or reimbursements for infrastructure construction. Voltabox of Texas opened in a temporary Austin location in March, and in August the company moved to another temporary space on Hur Industrial Boulevard in Cedar Park. Paul Malone, Voltabox vice president of marketing and sales, said the firm always wanted to headquarter Cedar Park and hopes to have its Scottsdale Crossing headquarters finished by March 2015. The firm's parent company, paragon AG, also operates a separate Voltabox division in Delbruck, Germany, chief operating officer Rick Herndon said. Voltabox of Texas has 13 employees and hopes to increase its employment to 35 by late 2015, Herndon said. Voltabox also plans to expand its Cedar Park facility in time to introduce new energy products that are currently being developed at the Germany location, he said. Herndon said Voltabox custom-builds and safety-tests lithium ion battery systems for business and municipal transportation vehicles that include hybrid or fully electric-powered engines. Mayor Matt Powell said the company's arrival confirms Cedar Park's high-tech industry growth. "Central Texas is really becoming such a hub for clean-energy technologies," Powell said.