“This is good news for downtown to have this new business come in and occupy the space,” Springfield City Commissioner Dan Martin said.
Commissioners approved an employee incentive agreement at Tuesday’s meeting. MacRay opened its downtown location on Monday.
The company currently has nine full-time employees and four part-time employees, with an annual payroll of about $250,000. The agreement calls for MacRay to create six new positions, with an additional payroll of about $125,000 by the end of next year.
The company has been adding about one to two jobs per year, owner Brian Roberts said, and has already added one new position at the new location.
“It just shows that they actually care about small businesses in town and are willing to help out,” Roberts said.
MacRay was founded by former owner Bob Yingst in 1986 before Roberts bought it in 2010. The design company offers services including personalized clothing, promotional products, laser engraving, branding and signs for commercial and architectural projects.
“No one realizes all of our capabilities,” Roberts said.
It’s important MacRay stayed in Clark County, City Commissioner Kevin O’Neill said.
“We kept an employer here and we brought them to downtown,” he said.
The downtown building had been vacant since Business Equipment Co. moved to Springfield Twp. early last year. MacRay had been located in a 9,000-square-foot building at 128 Eagle City Road. The downtown site is more than triple that size at about 30,000 square feet, Roberts said.
Several new businesses recently opened downtown, including Bada-Bing Pizzeria, Sip and Dippity Paint Bar and Pandora’s Yarn. MacRay is looking forward to being a part of a downtown revitalization, Roberts said.
“We’re going to pick up a volume of traffic from the move,” he said.
The business is also located near several key assets downtown, including the Springfield Regional Cancer Center, Franzen said.
“It’s nice to get some new activity down there,” he said.
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