Ply Gem Industries, a Cary company that makes building products, announced Wednesday that it will expand its Columbus County operations and create 145 jobs over the next three years.

The company will invest $15 million in its facilities in Fair Bluff, about 130 miles south of Raleigh. It is eligible to receive a $150,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund. The grant is contingent local governments making a matching grant and Ply Gem meeting its hiring and investment goals.

The average annual salaries for the new jobs will be $45,730, plus benefits. The Columbus County average is $31,605.

Ply Gem makes vinyl siding, vinyl windows and doors, and other products for home exteriors. The company's performance has approved as the nation's housing market has recovered.

Ply Gem generated $1.12 billion in sales last year, up 8.4 percent from 2011. Last week, the company revived its plans to raise up to $300 million in an initial public offering.

The company filed plans to go public in June 2010 but never followed through.

Ply Gem had 4,992 full-time employees at the end of December. The company employs more than 100 people in North Carolina.

State officials have been tight-lipped about the mystery company behind the  economic development project which could bring as many as 1,500 jobs to an area along the border between Columbus and Brunswick counties just west of Wilmington.

The project involves constructing a new facility that would make use of nearby rail and port connections and take up as much as 400 acres.

It would be a combination of distribution, logistics, manufacturing and assembly jobs, said Steve Yost, director of North Carolina’s Southeast, an economic development agency that serves the region.

One company that is definitely looking to build a new plant somewhere in the Southeast is Continental Tire.

The company first announced the project in May, and is continuing to scout sites.

The Red Cross has closed some of the evacuation shelters it opened Friday for Hurricane Irene.  All residents staying at these shelters have safely returned to their homes. Here's an update.