Why an $18 million business relocation within Rock Hill is going to save 200 jobs
A long-time Rock Hill manufacturer is moving to the city’s next big business destination.
CAT Resources will move from Tech Park to a new 92,000-square-foot building in Aspen Business Park. The $18.6 million move also ensures that the company’s 200 jobs remain in the city.
The new facility at 4209 International Drive, spread across 13 acres, also adds a known manufacturer for the 215-acre business park near Rock Hill’s airport.
“By staying in Rock Hill,” company owner Jonathan Bennett said in a Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation announcement, “we are able to collaborate with trusted partners and continue investing in the community we call home.”
CAT Resources makes the Combat Application Tourniquet. It’s a one-handed tourniquet used by military and first response groups. The U.S. Army began using it in combat in 2005, according to the company.
Mortality rates due to severe blood loss dropped by 85% when the Army began using it, according to CAT Resources. Bennett founded parent company Composite Resources in 1992 and set up in Tech Park in 2002.
Composite Resources, CAT Resources and affiliated company CORE Autosport pivoted to begin medical mask production at the height of the COVID pandemic.
CAT Resources has a history of involvement and success in Rock Hill, said economic development corporation Chairman Matt Dosch. Growing into space at Aspen can create new history, too.
“This move is not just an investment in a new building at Aspen, but in the future of Rock Hill,” Dosch said.
About the Rock Hill business park
Aspen is just off Celanese Road and Heckle Boulevard. It’s a partnership between the public economic development corporation and the private land developer Childress Klein
. It will have 10 buildings and nearly 2 million square feet of manufacturing, industrial or business space. City leaders and developers project Aspen will generate at least 1,000 new jobs.
Aspen is still in its early development stages.
Four years ago, sign manufacturer SouthWood Corporation announced plans to relocate there with 73 jobs and a $6.4 million investment. SouthWood is at 4101 International Drive. Most of the Aspen property, though, remains open for new development.
