NAPPANEE — After listening carefully to the plans ATC has, council members voted to approve a resolution allowing tax abatement for the local company.
Trent Sheets was present to represent the company and explained that the company wants to expand on Tomahawk Trail. He said they’ve had a building on South Williams Street since 2000 to 2001 and they plan to keep that building. The building on Tomahawk Trail is an 110,000 square foot facility, larger than the South Williams Street plant.
They will be purchasing a lot of equipment — paint booths, metal slides and a crane system for example — all new equipment to start another plant. He explained that ATC builds aluminum trailers of all types from a small 5-by-8-foot open utility trailer to a 53-foot enclosed custom trailer. Currently they have 202 employees and plan to add at least 38 new positions within two years. Hourly wage workers average annual wages will range around $53,000, while salaried workers earn approximately $1,425 a week ($68,400 a year).
The company is seeking a 10-year tax phase-in on real estate property with an estimated value of $4.6 million and a five-year tax phase-in on personal property with an estimated value of $560,000.
According to the terms of the tax abatement the improvements need to be made in 2017 and all employees hired by May 31, 2018.
Executive Director of Redevelopment and Chamber of Commerce Jeff Kitson told the council that this facility they are expanding in “fits perfectly with where their workforce is coming from and where they want to go.”
The phase-in for real estate starts at 100 percent in the first year and ends at 5 percent in the 10th year and for personal property it ends at 20 percent in the fifth year.