CHILLICOTHE — The Ohio Tax Credit Authority has approved a five-year tax incentive for a Washington-based manufacturer that plans to bring more than 50 jobs to Chillicothe.
Consolidated Metco, which builds engineered components for the transportation industry, already has manufacturing facilities in Oregon, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mexico and China. The company expects to create 55 full-time positions, with an estimated $2.3 million in annual payroll, at its new Chillicothe facility.
The 45 percent tax credit was one of 14 tax credit projects announced Monday by Gov. John Kasich.
Consolidated Metco, or ConMet as it’s known, is a major supplier to heavy-duty truck makers such as Kenworth, which also is based in Washington. ConMet announced in March that its PreSet Plus hub assemblies would be standard on all Kenworth Class 8 trucks, which are built at Kenworth plants in Chillicothe and Renton, Washington.
ConMet will lease 80,000 square feet of space in Kitchen Collection’s distribution center on Chamber Drive, according to Chris Manegold, CEO of the Economic Development Alliance of Southern Ohio.
Mead Corp. built the original 350,000-square-foot warehouse in the mid-1990s and later added on 125,000 square feet of manufacturing space that was essentially designed to stand as its own facility, Manegold said.
ConMet will lease space in that part of the building, he said.
According to Manegold, ConMet is relocating one of its product lines from North Carolina, where it operates three separate facilities, in order to be closer to Kenworth.
The move will cut down on transportation costs by putting ConMet “within a few hundred yards from a major customer,” he said.
ConMet had been in talks with local officials since February, said Manegold, who called the approval of the tax credit “welcome news.”
Randy Davies, CEO of the Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce, also applauded the news and credited Kenworth for its efforts in attracting suppliers to Ross County.
“Our community continues to reap the benefits as suppliers realize this is a viable area and continue to move here,” Davies said.
The person who handles media inquiries for ConMet did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
From Chillicothe Gazette | July 1, 2014
By David Berman, Staff Writer
