Belk is beefing up its distribution operations in Richland after a year of layoffs

Belk is investing $2.5 million to upgrade its Blythewood distribution center over the next five years, according to a Richland County news release.

With the upgrades, the Belk distribution facility in the Carolina Pines Industrial Park will maintain the same amount of employees, according to the release. Depending on the season, the facility employs between 78 and 103 people.

In 2000, Belk struck a deal with the county to pay a fee instead of taxes for the distribution center. The deal required that Belk hire at least 125 people in the Midlands by December 2005.

Belk hired 129 people in that time frame and invested more than $13 million into the distribution center that supports Belk’s 300 stores in 15 states, according to the release.

The county agreed to renew Belk’s fee-in-lieu-of-taxes deal for the next 20 years, though Belk has not promised to hire more people or maintain the original number of workers.

Belk is the largest privately owned department store chain in the U.S. In 2015, the Sycamore Partners private equity firm bought Belk from its founding family.

In a Forbes article in October, it was reported that Belk had not paid or was slow to pay at least four different vendors, signaling troubling times for the company.

In February, the company cut 80 corporate jobs citing restructuring. In July, after stores reopened from COVID-19 closures, Belk announced job cuts mostly in the Charlotte headquarters, according to reports from The Charlotte Observer.

Over the summer, Nike announced it would not merchandise Belk and eight other retailers in a move to sell more directly through digital, according to a Business Insider report.

Richland County officials have not yet calculated the fee amount that Belk will pay. The fee will be based on the company’s projected investment and the cost of equipment and property each year, according to Jeff Ruble, Richland’s economic development director.

This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM.