The Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority is in talks with a company that could invest $100 million to bring more than 200 jobs here, said Pat Topping, senior vice president of the Macon Economic Development Commission.

Topping said the company is a manufacturer that had been hit by the recession. The business in 2008 had gotten tax abatement schedules approved that would make it less expensive to operate in Bibb County. On Tuesday night, the school board voted unanimously to approve the same tax abatement schedules it had voted on five years earlier.

“This company is giving us an indication that, hey, we might have an opportunity. What we want to do is start laying the groundwork,” Topping said.

Topping said he’d been talking regularly with the business -- dubbed “Project Venture” -- and other potential prospects. The company is not Kumho Tire, Topping said, though he says he continues to speak with Kumho contacts. The Korean tire manufacturer began talks in 2008 to build a $225 million factory in Bibb County. 

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