At least 150 jobs should be coming to New Castle in the next two years as Crown Equipment Corp. begins operations.
Welders, machinists and maintenance workers will be hired this fall as the forklift manufacturer moves from Connersville to the former Metaldyne facility. The New Bremen, Ohio-based company plans to invest at least $15 million to renovate the nearly 1 million-square-foot facility and buy new machinery.
Crown President Jim Dicke III announced the company's plans at a ceremony Monday afternoon with Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman. Before a crowd of elected and business officials, he said he'll create the new jobs by 2013 in the building that's sat vacant for more than two years.
Workers are already digging pits in the 1817 I Ave. building to hold the company's presses, and equipment is scheduled to move to New Castle in January. Operations are expected to begin in mid-April, Dicke said.
Randy Niekamp, vice president of human resources, would not specify wages for the non-union positions coming to the facility but said they would be competitive with other companies. Skillman said advanced manufacturing jobs such as the ones at Crown tend to pay more than the state average wage.
More jobs could be coming later, but Dicke said he tends to under-promise and over-deliver.
Crown, a family-owned company, manufactures material-handling products, such as forklifts, in plants located around the world. Since it was founded in 1945, Crown has become one of the world's largest lift truck manufacturers.
In February, Crown announced it would lease the empty I Avenue facility and move its Connersville stamping operation to the newer and larger building owned by businessman Randy Neal. At the time, company officials said Connersville employees could transfer to the facility but did not specify how many new jobs would be created.
Dicke began looking at New Castle after a contractor saw the facility and suggested he talk to Neal. He liked the size of the nearly 1 million-square-foot building that would provide more space for the stamping operation, something that had become a problem in Connersville, he said.
During Monday's ceremony, Mayor Jim Small said he'd like to take the credit for bringing Crown to New Castle, but that Neal was the one who pulled off the deal.
Neal, owner of Neal Scrap Metal LLC, had known about Crown for years and decided to contact company officials when he heard they were looking for a new building. The Henry County Commissioners had helped him in the process of purchasing the building with the goal of filling it with a new manufacturer.
He wanted a business that wasn't dependent on the automobile industry and that would provide more stability. And he wanted to see more jobs in the community and hated seeing the once-bustling facility vacant.
The announcement is the latest in a recent string of economic development news. Last week, Ivy Tech Community College picked a location in New Castle for its new campus, and a California developer wants to bring four restaurants to the downtown L.A. Jennings Building.
Before that, dilapidated hotels were demolished at the Interstate 70 and Ind. 3 interchange, and developments were planned for multiple nearby properties.
And TS Tech added a second shift and 160 jobs to its plant that makes seats for Honda Civics.
When Crown opens its operations, it will start a new chapter in the building that housed Henry County's largest employer for decades.
The facility first opened as the Maxwell-Briscoe automobile factory and was expected to employ 1,200 people. Later, as a Chrysler plant, employment hit 6,700 people in 1934. New Castle boomed as thousands moved to the city looking for jobs.
Then the plant became Metaldyne, a parts supplier, in 2004, and about 1,000 people worked there.
A string of layoffs began as the economy worsened, and all but 83 employees were out of work as the automobile industry weakened in the fragile economy.
Metaldyne filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and two days later, a spokesperson announced that the plant would close.
The closure left hundreds out of work and drove the county's unemployment rate to a spike of 15.2 percent. Business slowed for New Castle shops, restaurants and even health care services, and owners said they could point in their ledgers to the month when Metaldyne closed.
© Copyright 2025, The Courier-Times, New Castle, IN.