Will a plan to add infrastructure mean new jobs for the region?

That’s the hope of New Hanover County officials, who in April this year took a major step in a three-year process when they approved a $2.1 million capital project to design, permit and acquire rights of way for the extension of water and sewer service along the U.S. 421 corridor.

The project, which extends the necessary infrastructure from the Isabel Holmes Bridge to the Pender County line, is expected to lay the foundation for attracting job creators to what is considered the last major developable industrial zone in the county.

“I’ll refer to an actual quote from the Garner Report [a county-funded economic analysis about the area released in 2014]: Water and sewer on 421 is transformative from a jobs creation perspective,” County Manager Chris Coudriet said earlier this year.

In September, the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority awarded the $1.5 million design contract to Kansas-based engineering firm Black & Veatch. The design and permitting work is currently scheduled to be completed in July 2017, according to CFPUA.

In February, CFPUA announced that construction of the Flemington Water and Sewer Project had been finished, work that brought water and sewer lines under the Cape Fear River to the Flemington community and the U.S. 421 corridor.

While the project’s first focus was to connect Flemington-area customers to CFPUA’s central drinking water system, officials then added the ability for the entire U.S. 421 corridor to connect to CFPUA’s central sewer systems.

In some ways, the anticipation of added infrastructure to the area is already paying off.

At the end of October, Professional Builders Supply opened the doors to a new sales and distribution facility at 3941 U.S. 421 in Wilmington.

“The new facility consists of 10 acres and over 75,000 square feet of office, warehouse and coverage storage space and will provide the company with an opportunity to enhance efficiencies as it serves the Greater Wilmington and Brunswick County area,” a company statement said.

After seven years at 111 Military Cutoff Road, Professional Builders Supply had to move because of the upcoming Military Cutoff extension project. The company sells building supplies mainly to single-family homebuilders.

In addition to the necessity of moving and getting more space, the company moved to U.S. 421 with the expectation that water lines will eventually be extended.

Much of the funding for the extension is expected to come from a combination of state grants and low-interest loans, and county officials have said the project has an estimated completion date of July 2019.

The steps taken in 2016 for additional U.S. 421 infrastructure puts a check mark on one of the recommendations gleaned from the Garner Report of two years ago. In scenarios presented by county staff in 2015, doing nothing along the corridor would likely result in the creation of less than 250 jobs, while an optimistic estimate with the infrastructure in place showed a result of more than 3,000, many of them higher paying positions.