Marion’s newest manufacturer is seeking tax abatement for a soon to be built storage yard.
Stealth Trailers received a favorable recommendation Tuesday from the city council’s Development Committee on a real property tax abatement request. Stealth Trailers President Don Emahiser is requesting a phased-in 10 year tax abatement for a storage yard the company plans on installing west of the company’s Marion plant, located at 2703 W. Ninth St.
Emahiser said the company is ramping up production at its Marion location faster than originally anticipated. The trailer company, based in Bristol, Indiana, expected to only be making two to three trailers per day, though that is now up to five per day and will soon be at six per day.
The company opened its Marion location last month and said it would create more than 100 jobs by 2020. Currently, the company employs 35-40 people at its Marion location with plans to add a second shift. The president said one of the reasons it looked at expanding was the fact it faces stiff competition and indifference from the local government in Elkhart County due to full employment and a surging RV business that pays its employees more.
“We’re pulling from the bottom of the barrel, I can’t say any different,” Emahiser said about a portion of the employees at its Bristol location.
So far, Emahiser said, the move to Marion has beat expectations, adding that the company could move the majority of its production to the city in the future.
“It’s early, but we are feeling really robust about Marion to the point of we’re probably looking in the next several years additional facilities and maybe moving the majority of the operations down here,” Emahiser said. “We’re growing faster than we expected, and we’re not going to stop it.”
The abatement, according to county assessor projections, would save the company an average of $600 a year in taxes, Grant County Growth Council Executive Tim Eckerle said. Stealth Trailers’ investment is expected to be around $250,000, which includes a six-foot perimeter fence and laying down gravel throughout the storage yard.
The company plans on beginning construction on the storage yard before the full council formally discusses the tax abatement.
Development Committee members had nothing but praise for the trailer manufacturing company’s proposed investment.
Non-committee member Councilman Henry Smith said the company should have asked for a 100 percent tax abatement.
Development Committee President Don Batchelor said he happy to see a new company grow.
“We appreciate you guys’ investment,” he said “We’re excited for things taking off out there.”
The request will now head to the full council where it will most likely be well received by the council.
The council, in 2016 and so far in 2017, has yet to decline a tax abatement request.