A property which had sat vacant since 2008, the empty factory at 1500 E. Murden St. was in jeopardy of falling into blighted disrepair.
Saran Industries says it’s ready to remedy that issue before it becomes an unsightly problem.
The Indiana-based manufacturing firm announced Tuesday it plans to bring as many as 60 jobs to Kokomo while renovating the existing structure, which hasn’t been used in seven years.
“Kokomo is a natural fit for our expansion,” Saran Industries Vice President Nick Saran said. “With a highly skilled workforce, a history of innovation and a thriving economy, it is a hub for the type of advanced manufacturing we choose to associate ourselves with and invest our company’s capital.”
The manufacturer, which provides surface finishing of metal products for automobile industry giant FCA US LLC and others, announced its plans in the old Pittsburgh Plate Glass facility, a 250,000-square-foot complex which most recently housed aluminum extruder Indalex.
The facility has been collecting dust for seven years and as a result, Saran will need to invest approximately $4.4 million in renovations to the complex over the next several months.
“Saran is breathing life back into a facility that was beginning to fade away from memory,” Kokomo mayor Greg Goodnight said. “Soon this factory will once again hum with activity and be a hub for innovation and quality products. … It’s important to bring jobs and investment. But, we have to continue to invest in quality of life so that there is a desire for people to live here. That creates that talent pool that other companies can tap into and hopefully expand, relocate and grow their businesses.”
Saran started in 1964 as an industrial coatings applications company. The firm went on site to apply industrial coatings to structures like power generation facilities, oil refineries and automotive foundries. It then began winding down its field coatings applications in the latter part of the 1990s, focusing at that time on developing its own shop business. Its factory-associated-type business includes surface finishing of metal products. It receives castings, forgings and wrought materials, and then provides finishing applications such as shop blasting, peening, casting impregnation, heat treating and fluorescent penetrant inspection.
“This is a corporate decision that will result in new investment, new jobs and more diversification of our local economy,” Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance CEO Charlie Sparks said. “We’re here to express our gratitude to the corporation which made the decision to invest here in Kokomo and Howard County. The economy here is growing. The population is growing. We’re at a 15-year low for unemployment rate in this community. With a productive workforce and a focus on quality of place, we’re well positioned for these types of projects and announcements.
Saran hopes to have limited production up and running in the facility by the end of the fourth quarter, with a fully ramped-up production ready to go by the end of the first quarter of 2016.
But, significant upgrades and repairs will be necessary to put the complex back into working order.
The facility was built in 1966, and since PPG left in 1993, it’s been used by a couple of businesses. Indalex fell into financial trouble in 2007 before layoffs and eventually the closing of the facility in 2008. Indalex would later file for bankruptcy in 2009.
“It’s nothing we didn’t anticipate,” Nick Saran said. “We’ve been working with PPG for some time in trying to get our arms around what it would take to be inside this facility. We have a pretty good understanding and gameplan.”
Saran is headquartered in Indianapolis and also operates a manufacturing facility in Shelbyville.