Window biz tries to lock up $300K in incentives

VENICE — PGT Inc. has moved ahead with a plan to receive up to $300,000 in performance-based sustainable energy incentives.

The Venice-based impact-resistant window and door firm, one of the largest private employers in Sarasota County, applied for the incentives, from the Sustainable Energy Economic District (SEED) Incentive Program, earlier this year. The SEED funds stem from the Florida-run Energy Economic Zone pilot program. That program is designed to help communities cultivate green economic development, encourage renewable electric energy and promote manufacturing of products that contribute to energy conservation and green jobs.

Sarasota County commissioners unanimously approved the incentives in February. The performance-based incentives have no impact on the county's budget, a release states. Sarasota County, one of two communities to participate in the state's EEZ pilot, has up to $300,000 in state incentives available in any fiscal year. PGT officials recently reiterated its intention to go after the incentives, according to the latest release on the program.

“We are excited that the Sarasota County Commissioners approved our eligibility to receive SEED incentive funds and that we live in a county that recognized the importance of job creation and its effect on our local economy,” PGT President and COO Jeff Jackson says in the May 4 statement.

PGT had to meet certain criteria to become eligible for the incentives, the release adds. The criteria includes having an energy performance standard at least 5% above Florida's energy code requirements; creating at least five new full-time jobs in the clean technology or green business research/development sectors; and at least 10 new full-time jobs in the green business manufacturing or industrial sectors.

PGT, according to Jackson, hired 317 employees in 2014 and has hired another 53 people in 2015. The company expects to add 220 jobs by 2020, and a chunk of those will be for the firm's 96,000-square-foot, $14 million glass operations plant that opened late last year.

PGT received $600,000 in incentives from Sarasota County from a different program in 2010. The firm was required to add 400 jobs and it ultimately hired more than 700 people. It now has around 1,700 employees. The publicly traded company (symbol: PGTI, recent share price: $11.51) had $306.4 million in revenues in fiscal 2014.