SOUTH BEND — Manufacturing Technology Inc to expand in South Bend and add jobs.
Co-owner and Chief Technology Officer Dan Adams confirmed the news. The company will move its contract welding business from West Washington Street to North Sheridan Street beginning later this year, Adams said. Its machine assembly business will stay put.
The move will provide the company with an additional 117,000 square feet of space in the city on top of the 65,000 it already occupies. The current facility, west of downtown, will be renovated to create more office space for engineers and more floor space for machine assembly, Adams said.
Adams said the company considered locations outside South Bend and St. Joseph County before settling on the Sheridan Street site.
He said the vacant former Mohawk Flush Doors building fits the company’s needs in that its 16-foot ceilings and “wide open spaces” allow for the use of a crane. As a bonus, “it’s also very close,” he said, “only about a mile away from our current facility.”
Including building improvements and new equipment, the total cost of the move is expected to top $2.6 million. MTI is seeking a two-year vacant building property tax abatement and a five-year real property tax abatement, worth a combined $159,000, to help offset that cost. The move is expected to create 14 permanent full-time jobs and retain 25 full-time jobs, representing an annual payroll of about $775,000.
