Community Corner
New Jobs Coming to Sturtevant, Maybe to Mount Pleasant, Too
A dozen new jobs are coming to Sturtevant, and a new manufacturing company is interested in Mount Pleasant.
The Sturtevant Planning Commission has granted preliminary site plan approval to American Metal Technologies for a 21,000 square foot addition.
AMT, 8213 Durand Avenue, supplies parts to giant auto makers Ford and Navistar as well as a number of smaller companies. Gov. Scott Walker visited AMT in 2011 when the company expanded from 190 employees to 230 employees and had plans to add another 109 positions over three years.
According to company officials who attended the commission meeting, most of the new space will be used for warehousing, but there will be 10 to 12 new jobs created as well.
Jim Cairns of Bukaceck Construction will oversee construction of the new space and said it will be located on the east side of the building.
"The auto industry is regaining its footing so AMT is looking to add space for warehousing and some production, too," he told commission members.
AMT wants to get the project moving and completed by this fall.
"They'd like to move as quickly as possible to add the space and the jobs," Cairns stated.
Potential in Mount Pleasant
Meanwhile, Mount Pleasant trustees and members of the Community Development Authority met in a joint session on June 27 to talk about a company interested in building a 150,000 to 170,000 square foot manufacturing facility.According to Logan Martin, community development coordinator for the village, officials at the unnamed company are looking at locations in Mount Pleasant, Caledonia and the City of Racine. The joint meeting, he said, was a good way to keep trustees and CDA members on the same page at the same time.
"This way, we eliminate some time but still keep the necessary steps," he said. "It's nice because then everyone has the same information."
Martin put together incentive scenarios for each of the three possible sites in Mount Pleasant to try and entice the company to locate in the village.
"This could be a tire-kicker or a nice project for a manufacturer that would mean jobs for the area," he added. "This is a new company looking at three sites both inside and outside of the (tax incremental financing district)."
A TID (tax incremental financing district) is a special growth tool available to municipalities that allows the community to use property taxes from tenants of the TID to pay back the loan(s) used to establish infrastructure - like roads - within the district. Mount Pleasant has two large TIDS; one at the corner of Highways 11 and 31 and one at Highway 20 at Highway V (see attached maps).
Preparing the packages is standard, Martin continued, because companies weigh offers when making their decisions.
Racine County Economic Development Corporation is also involved, helping coordinate any state tax credit programs and working with Mount Pleasant on what the village can bring to the table.
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