USA Rare Earth is betting big on Blacksburg. The company says it will lease an 800,000-square-foot factory in Bailey Industrial Park in Cherokee County, part of a rare-earth metals and magnet project it pegs at about $1.2 billion. The planned operation, centered on neodymium-iron-boron magnets and refined rare-earth metals, is expected to bring roughly 490 high-skill manufacturing jobs to the area.
As reported by the Charlotte Business Journal, USA Rare Earth has signed a lease for an approximately 800,000-square-foot building on about 129.9 acres in Bailey Industrial Park on Bear Den Road. Local coverage casts the move as another advanced manufacturing anchor along the I-85 corridor west of Charlotte and a major economic win for Cherokee County.
Lease terms and incentives
According to the company’s StreetInsider filing with the SEC, USA Rare Earth entered into a lease with TC Liberty Development for the to-be-constructed facility on Bear Den Road. The filing outlines an initial 20-year net lease with two successive 10-year extension options and standard tenant responsibilities for operating costs, taxes and insurance. The document also details a fee-in-lieu incentives agreement with Cherokee County that ties tax and park benefits to staged investment and hiring milestones.
Production targets and federal backing
The company says the Blacksburg site is targeting about 6,400 metric tons per year of sintered NdFeB magnets and 5,000 metric tons per year of strip-cast metals, with engineering work and equipment procurement already underway and commissioning targeted to begin in 2028, according to a GlobeNewswire press release. That production plan sits alongside potential federal help. The CHIPS Program Office signed a non-binding letter of intent that could provide up to $277 million in direct funding and up to $1.3 billion in a senior secured loan to accelerate the company’s mine-to-magnet strategy, according to NIST.
Why it matters locally — and the numbers to watch
USA Rare Earth has presented the project as a roughly $1.2 billion investment that will create about 490 high-wage manufacturing positions, and Gov. Henry McMaster said the move “will have a significant impact on Cherokee County” in the company’s announcement. At the same time, the county incentives agreement described in the SEC filing links certain benefits to staged investment thresholds and a different jobs target for incentive eligibility, a discrepancy that local officials and developers are likely to watch closely as the project moves forward.
Legal and financial caveats
The company’s SEC disclosures emphasize that the lease and incentives are conditional. The landlord must acquire the land and close on financing within specific time frames, and the incentive package requires minimum capital spending and ongoing reporting to qualify. The StreetInsider filing warns that delays in financing, permitting or construction, or a failure to meet incentive milestones, could shift the project’s economics or trigger recapture of benefits.
What’s next
Engineering, equipment procurement and early site work are expected to ramp up in the coming months, with commissioning still targeted for 2028, according to company materials and local reporting. The expansion fits into a broader national push. USA Rare Earth’s investor filings point to updated DFARS sourcing rules that restrict Chinese-origin rare-earth magnets in certain defense procurements starting January 1, 2027, a policy change that helps explain the rush to build domestic magnet capacity in places like Cherokee County.
