At an 8 a.m. meeting Monday, the McGregor City Council approved a resolution to transfer the acreage to A&C Real Estate Investment Texas LLC, “in accordance with the development agreement entered into between the city of McGregor, A&C and Electronic Fluorocarbons, LLC,” the name of the East Coast company before it switched to EFC Gases & Advanced Materials.

The action authorizes McGregor Mayor Jim Lilley to execute the deed for such sale “and all necessary closing documents.” Lilley would not comment on the transaction or EFC Gases’ plans, choosing instead to let City Manager Kevin Evans address the matter. Evans would not comment on the record other than to praise EFC Gases as a great company that has made it clear it wants to control release of information about the project.

No one with EFC Gases had returned calls by late afternoon Monday.

Nor would Kris Collins, the Greater Waco Chamber’s chief industry recruiter, offer insight, saying: “At this time, we are not commenting on the project and would defer any questions to the company for comment.”

Seth Morris, the chamber’s vice president for economic development, told the Tribune-Herald on Friday that EFC Gases had made sites visits to the McGregor industrial park and showed interest in building there.

EFC Gases’ interest in Texas should come as no surprise, considering its involvement with the semiconductor industry. Since the Chips and Science Act became law in 2020, more than 50 new U.S. semiconductor projects valued at $210 billion have been announced. More than $61 billion is flowing to Texas, where six projects will create more than 8,000 jobs, according to news reports.

“Because we have ports, because we have access to materials, because of our low cost of doing business, we are best situated to lead this next generation of chip manufacturing,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told CNBC in July 2023.

Samsung is building a $17 billion fabrication lab in Taylor. Other chip makers, including Infineon, NXP Semiconductors and X-Fam, have a Texas presence.

The city of Bryan and Brazos County Commissioners Court last week approved tax abatement agreements with a company associated with Substrate Inc. to build a $10 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility in Bryan.

Gov. Abbott and economic development professionals from around the state just returned from a trade mission to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, which are leaders in semiconductor research and development.

The plant in McGregor reportedly would employ at least 120. There it would join economic heavyweights such as SpaceX, Messer and Knauf Insulation in McGregor’s 9,600-acre industrial park with more than 2,000 acres still available for development, McGregor officials have said.

It is not clear if EFC Gases will pursue incentives that may include tax breaks for choosing McGregor as its landing spot. Officials speaking off the record said they may approach local taxing entities about incentives.

Says an EFC fact sheet, “EFC is a leading supplier of high quality hydrocarbon, specialty, rare gases and laser mixtures to North American, Asian and European Gas Distributors at competitive prices. … Sourced globally, these specialty gases are purified using EFC’s proprietary synthesis, purification, and packaging technology to meet and exceed stringent industry demanded specifications, accompanied with detailed and exacting analytical reports.”