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Warren Site 'Best' Choice for Laird's Cattron Division
WARREN, Ohio – A spokesman for Laird Technologies says the former Delphi building here, where it is relocating its wireless automation and controls business, is “the best facility that would fit our needs.”
Laird announced Thursday morning that it would relocate the Sharpsville-Pa.-based Cattron-Theimeg Inc. operations, which it purchased in late 2010, to the former Delphi building at 655 N. River Road (READ STORY). The Laird division manufactures remote-control products and aftermarket services for the mining, commercial, mobile, railroad and other industrial markets. The company considered sites in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“Our team looked everywhere for the best facility that would fit our needs,” said Jannette Avila, communications and marketing manager for Laird, who was in the Czech Republic Thursday evening en route to Laird’s operations in that part of the world. The new building provides room for operations to expand that it lacked at the Sharpsville location.
“Our team definitely outgrew the [Sharpsville] facility and out team is continuing to grow,” Avila said. “We want to make sure we have room for the new people. That’s the reason why we chose that facility.”
Laird “contacted us directly,” said Sarah Boyarko, vice president of economic development, North America, for the Youngstown/Warren Regional chamber. The chamber worked with Laird for nearly a year on the project, she said.
“They were exploring options in Ohio,” she recalled. “Although they’ve been extremely successful in their location in Pennsylvania, they’d outgrown their space and there really were few options for them to chooser pick from with regard to existing properties.”
The former Delphi building “has good highway access” and Warren was “a welcoming community,” Boyarko said.
Penn-Northwest Development Corp. presented Laird with two options, reported Randy Seitz, president and CEO of the Mercer County-based economic development agency. One was to build new at the eCenter@LindenPointe in Hermitage, Pa. “As an alternative plan we showed them a facility that was precisely the size that they needed and presented them with a proposal on how to refurbish the building” to Laird’s requirements, he said. Additionally, Pennsylvania’s governor made grant money available that would have allowed Laird to purchase the building for “virtually pennies on the dollar,” he said.
“We’re very fond of Cattron and would have loved to see those jobs remain in the community,” Seitz remarked. “We’re tickled pink that if they’re going to move someplace else we’d rather it be Warren than someplace else in Texas.”
Laird looked at options closer to Sharpsville “but we just wanted a facility that would be able to hold us,” Avila said.
“It’s a great day for the city of Warren,” proclaimed Mayor Doug Franklin. “What this signals to the rest of the world and anybody looking to relocate is that Warren can put together a competitive package as good as anybody.”
The city incentives, which come in addition to the job creation tax credit approved by the stateearlier this year, include gifting six acres of land contingent upon Laird expanding within three years; waiver of tap-in fees for city utilities; 63% rebate of net income tax for new employees; and 63% tax credit on the net profit tax. “We knew we needed to put our best foot forward because of the type of company this is,” Franklin said. “They could have moved a lot of places. They had several options.”
The 150 positions relocating from Laird’s current operations in Sharpsville pay an average annual wage of $65,000, and the 55 new positions to be created will pay $54,000 on average, Franklin noted. “So these are good-paying jobs,” he said.
“This is an important win for the city of Warren,” commented Walt Good, senior director, regional business development, with Team Northeast Ohio. “It’s a combination of a divisional headquarters in conjunction with their manufacturing operations.”
The Regional Chamber contacted Team NEO, an affiliate of the state’s JobsOhio program, shortly after it began working with Laird, to start working on an incentive package. The company conducted “a pretty complex analysis” in evaluating the options in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Good said.
Franklin praised the collaborative effort among the various entities participating. Boyarko was “extremely valuable” in the process for her role in coordinating the state incentive package, he added.
“It was a team approach,” he said. “We put together a very competitive incentive package that turned the deal in our favor.”
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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