By Timothy Cox
tcox@dailystandard.com Alumacast Inc. plans to move from a corner of the former Mersman Furniture Co. complex in Celina to the Grand Lake Industrial Park on Staeger Road and expand its business.
The move is part of the city's plan to redevelop the Mersman site and some city-owned property. Celina City Council members are to consider an ordinance at today's special meeting that would buy out Alumacast's current site at the corner of Livingston Street and Brandon Avenue and that would give the company 5.75 acres of industrial park land for $1.
The ordinance could be passed off for further discussion.
The economic development agreement that is attached to the ordinance calls for the city to pay Alumacast $175,000 for the relocation under terms of the Federal Uniform Relocation Act. In return, Alumacast officials would relinquish all rights to the parcel and would agree to add 10 new full-time jobs during the next three years at its new site. The company now employs five people.
Alumacast makes a variety of casted metal products, including escalator treads. The plan also calls for Alumacast to build a 20,000-square-foot plant in the industrial park on land sold by the city's Community Improvement Corp. for $1. Under the proposed ordinance, the city also would extend water and sewer service to within five feet of the new building and would waive all tap-in fees. Electric service also would be extended to within five feet of the Alumacast facility. The city also would be responsible for some grading and storm drainage work. The extra work is estimated to cost about $20,000.
City officials also plan to seek approval for a 15-year tax abatement on the real estate Alumacast will occupy at the industrial park.
Also as part of the complex deal, Alumacast President Rick Kaylor would agree to annex to the city the property he owns at the corner of Staeger and Havemann roads where General Rental is located.
Plans for the Alumacast site show the building would be located north of the Versa Pak facility, which is now the industrial park's only tenant. The Alumacast building would not front Staeger Road, but instead would face the extension of Havemann Road that runs through the park.
Once Alumacast vacates the property at the Mersman complex, city officials would pursue further plans involving the Alumacast property and its wastewater sludge lagoons on U.S. 127 south of the city.
City Community Development consultant Kent Bryan has proposed moving the existing Alumacast metal building from its current site to the city sewer plant to use its as a sludge storage facility. That would eventually allow the city to get rid of the current lagoons and market that property, along with the Alumacast property, for development. |
