Cascade Die Casting Plans 43 New Jobs, $8M Investment in High Point

For 47 years, the die casting plant at 1800 Albertson Road in High Point has turned out precision aluminum components for Ford, Jeep, and GE. Now Cascade Die Casting Group is asking Guilford County and the City of High Point to pay roughly $3,670 for each of the 43 jobs it has promised to add, and neither government has publicly disclosed a wage floor for those positions or the specific consequences if the company falls short of its hiring target.

The combined public package stands at $157,824: a $100,000 performance-based grant the City of High Point already approved, paired with a $57,824 county grant pending a public hearing. In return, Cascade has pledged to create 43 full-time positions by December 31, 2029, and invest $8.12 million in equipment and machinery upgrades across its facilities at 1800 Albertson Road and 501 Old Thomasville Road. The private investment is roughly 51 times the combined public outlay, a leverage ratio that officials are likely to cite in the grant's defense.

A county notice filed under the project codename "Project Gamble" states that Cascade is weighing out-of-state alternatives, the standard justification local governments attach to incentive packages when they need to show competitive pressure. Whether that threat is credible or strategic is harder to assess when the company has operated in High Point continuously since 1978, currently employs approximately 200 people at its Atlantic Division, and supplies Tier 1 components to global manufacturers with no obvious reason to sever a nearly half-century relationship.

Both packages are described as "performance-based," which in North Carolina typically means disbursements occur in installments only after the company verifies it has hit employment and investment benchmarks. What neither the county nor the city has placed in the public record are the exact reporting schedule, the clawback structure, and what penalty applies if Cascade's December 2029 headcount falls short.

The region's recent experience with performance-based incentive deals provides useful context. North Carolina committed more than $50 million in public money to Boom Supersonic's facility at Piedmont Triad International Airport, which had yet to produce a single aircraft nearly two years after its June 2024 ribbon-cutting ceremony. Boom originally committed to hiring 1,761 workers at the site; the airport authority's lease allows termination if fewer than 500 are employed there by December 31, 2026. The Cascade request is smaller by orders of magnitude and involves a company with a documented manufacturing track record, but the Boom experience showed that commissioners can approve incentive deals with accountability gaps that later prove difficult to close.

The 43 new positions at Cascade would include process technicians, engineers, human resources personnel, tool and die technicians, and maintenance technicians. The company is participating in the NC FAME workforce development program. "This expansion not only reflects our long-term commitment to the community but also supports our mission to deliver high-quality, precision components to our customers," said Jason Antis, vice president of Cascade Die Casting Group.

High Point Mayor Cyril Jefferson called the expansion evidence that the city is "a destination for advanced manufacturing and long-term partnerships." City Economic Development Director Peter Bishop said the growth "strengthens our industrial base, supports local supply chains and offers meaningful career opportunities for our residents."

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a public hearing for June 18 at 5:30 p.m. at the Old County Courthouse, 301 W. Market Street in Greensboro. Commissioners are simultaneously weighing a separate proposal codenamed Project McKinley, in which an unidentified company is seeking $1.16 million in incentives for more than 400 potential jobs. The June hearing will be an opportunity for commissioners to answer publicly what "performance-based" actually requires of Cascade, and what recourse taxpayers have if 2029 arrives with fewer than 43 new names on the payroll.