$18M plan brings headquarters and more jobs to Austin area

New access road will help open Miamisburg for more development.


INVESTMENTS AND INCENTIVES

BY THE NUMBERS

$13M: Estimated cost of the investment in land and construction a United Grinding official has said the company plans to invest in a new site.

$3.5M-$4M: Preliminary estimate of cost to the city of Miamisburg for building an access road from Byers Road.

$540,000: Amount of forgivable loan city has agreed to with United Grinding.

$518,000: Amount of state tax credits United Grinding will be in line for if it meets its obligations.

$400,000-$500,000: Estimated amount of city tax credits United Grinding will be in line for annually over nine years it if meets its obligations.

$250,000: Amount of Montgomery County Economic Development and Government Equity United Grinding has been awarded.

SOURCES: Ohio Tax Credit Authority and the city of Miamisburg.

COMING UP

The Dayton Daily News will further examine development along the west side of Interstate 75 in the south suburbs.

Investments and incentives topping $18 million will help a local company move its North American headquarters to the Austin interchange, bringing 140 high-paying jobs to the area off Interstate 75.

An access road projected to cost at least $3.5 million will help lure United Grinding North America to an area that Miamisburg officials believe is ready for further development along Byers Road and the west side of the interchange.

United will build a $13 million home within a half-mile of the interchange. The Miamisburg company opted for it over several other states and area locations to move jobs that pay $90,000 a year on average from Virginia as it consolidates operations, a city official said.

The deal includes other state and local incentives of at least $1.7 million.

“They’re a world leader in their industry,” Miamisburg Development Director Chris Fine said of United Grinding. “So it was important for us to do what we could to keep them here to have another North American headquarters facility here in the city.”

Other firms with their continental headquarters on or near Byers are Dayton Superior, Evenflo, O’Neil & Associates and Yaskawa America, also known as Motoman Robotics.

“I think that’s also going to help attract other companies to look at this area when they know that some of these large players in these industries are willing to put this kind of investment in the community,” he added.

A United Grinding executive said in June the company was looking to move from the 50,000 to 60,000 square foot facility on Earl Boulevard to a site closer to the Austin interchange as it relocated its Fredericksburg, Va., work force and consolidated North American operations that also include Canada and Mexico.

But company officials declined to comment on the issue last week, and attempts to reach them this week — when Miamisburg approved a package of incentives — were unsuccessful.

The maker of precision machine parts will build a 100,000 square foot facility on close to 15 acres north of Motoman and south of American Testing Services between Old Byers Road and I-75, according to the city.

The decision bodes well for that area’s future, Miamisburg Mayor Dick Church Jr., said.

“It’s going to be a win-win for our Austin-Byers Road industrial area,” he said. “We’re retaining a great company and bringing new jobs into the community.”

The city’s agreement indicates the company, with 100 local workers now, “must hire not less than” 40 new employees with additional annual payroll of not less than $3.6 million by Dec. 31, 2020. That would boost United Grinding’s yearly payroll to more than $12 million.

The company spent more than six months considering sites in Miamisburg, Montgomery County, other parts of the state and in Illinois, Indiana and North Carolina before choosing the Austin area, Fine said.

Agreeing to build the access road helped keep United Grinding in town, he said. But it was a move city officials had planned to do at some point in the future.

“They really liked the idea of the road. We told them we think it’s critical just for the development of all of the acreage out there,” Fine said.

“As they moved forward with their process, they had indicated that the road would really be important for them to get access, and at the end of the day, they asked us if we could build that when they build their facility,” he added.

The east-west road will be built 1,500 feet north of the Byers Road/Austin Boulevard intersection and will be less than a half-mile long, connecting Byers and Old Byers roads, documents show.

How the road construction will be financed has not been finalized, but should be within a month, said Miamisburg Finance Director George Perrine.

“We’re going to have to decide here pretty soon,” he said.

The road will be a two lanes with turn lanes “where appropriate,” documents show. It is expected to be complete by Oct. 1, 2017, the city’s agreement states.

The city’s agreement followed county and state incentives. The county this spring announced a $250,000 Economic Development and Government Equity grant for the project, while the Ohio Tax Credit Authority last month approved what could amount to $518,000 in tax credits for United Grinding.

A $540,000 forgivable loan and a job creation tax credit that could be worth up to $500,000 annually were also part the city’s package.

The loan is to be repaid in six years, while the 75 percent tax credit would extend nine years, the agreement states. The incentives will help enhance the Austin interchange’s western development, according to Church.

“United Grinding is a high-quality business, and we’re thrilled to be able to retain them in our community. The planned facility is going to be a nice enhancement to the Austin corridor,” he said.

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