ELIZABETHTOWN — County commissioners on Wednesday evening gave approval to three economic development items related to Bladen’s Bloomin’ Agri-Industrial.

Two forgivable loans totaling more than $1.1 million were in the consent agenda, and commissioners gave unanimous approval to supporting a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant request for $1.72 million.

The EDA grant would go toward building its seventh incubator building, a 32,500-foot facility in Elizabethtown Industrial Park.

Bladen’s Bloomin’ will provide a $430,000 cash match.

The economic development organization said the building is needed in “anticipation that there will be a wave of reshoring manufacturing facilities,” a letter to the commissioners reads. “If Bladen County is to benefit from these jobs coming back to the United States, we need a quality industrial facility to attract the projects.”

The forgivable loans are tied to Incubator No. 5 and Incubator No. 6.

Incubator No. 5, at 518 Ben Greene Industrial Park Road, is to be the new home of Anthem Displays. The manufacturer of digital LED billboards, already with a spot in the park and moving to a larger facility, will get reduced cost on a four-year lease with multiple three-year options.

Incubator No. 6, at 474 Ben Greene Industrial Park Road, is to be the new home of Westwood Robotic Technologies. Westwood, which shares a building now with Aramark, is in the robotic conveyors industry. It will get a reduced cost on a three-year lease with multiple three-year options.

Aramark, a company that provides food service, facilities and uniform services to hospitals, universities, school districts, stadiums and other businesses around the world, has a distribution facility here. It will retain all of the space at 370 Ben Greene Industrial Park Road.

Alan Wooten can be reached at 910-247-9132 or awooten@bladenjournal.com.