The Gayle Manufacturing Co. plant that may soon be under construction in Canyon County checks off every box on the economic development wish list: high-paying jobs, millions in capital investment and in-house training for skilled workers.
Gayle Manufacturing Co. already employs more than 30 workers at its plantbuilt in 1998at 80 North Kings Road in Nampa, where it receives raw steel beams via rail and fashions them into beams ready for use in commercial buildings. Founder and Chief Financial Officer Jim DeBlasio said negotiations over tax breaks and government training assistance are all that's keeping the company from completing its purchase of 50 acres and breaking ground on a $25 million, 150,000-square-foot plant west of Caldwell.
He's optimistic the talks will wrap up in two to four weeks. DeBlasio said construction could start promptly afterward on the southwest corner of Idaho 19 and Weitz Road just west of J.R. Simplot Co.'s new potato-processing plant.
"We're ready to pull the trigger on this," DeBlasio said.
Combined, the two Treasure Valley plants would surpass $200 million in sales within five years, DeBlasio predicted.
The company has outgrown the original plant DeBlasio opened in 1976 in Woodland, Calif., near Sacramento. The new Caldwell plant would replace the California operation with more modern equipment, doubled capacity and room to grow.
STATE, COUNTY TAX BREAKS IN THE WORKS
Gayle Manufacturing Co. is negotiating with Canyon County over a property-tax exemption and with the state over sales-tax exemptions for production equipment and new-plant construction. In addition, the company is negotiating for tax reimbursements under Idaho's new Tax Reimbursement Act as well as training grants from the state's Workforce Development Training Fund. The Tax Reimbursement Act allows the state to reimburse up to 30 percent of a company's sales, payroll and income taxes for up to 15 years if a company meets certain job-development targets.
"In our decision-making process for us to locate that plant there, (the incentives) are a decisive issue to us," DeBlasio said.
Compensation, including health and retirement benefits, averages about $82,000 per employee per year, he said, with the minimum package about $62,000.
Gayle is the kind of business the Treasure Valley wants, said Steve Fultz, executive director of economic development for the city of Caldwell. The city of Nampa, the Boise Valley Economic Partnership and the Idaho departments of labor and commerce have worked on the project, Fultz said.
"It's a major impact with a major employer offering and providing major salaries," Fultz said. "They far exceed the average wage currently offered throughout the county. We see great opportunity for jobs."
AS ECONOMY RECOVERS, SO DOES GAYLE
The number of jobs is hard to pin down, because DeBlasio doesn't yet know how many of the 71 California employees will relocate here. All have the option.
DeBlasio said the company will replace any employees who don't relocate from California, then hire 20 to 40 additional workers in the next two years. The company cut its employment roster after the Great Recession began seven years ago, but has been growing recently. It hired 10 employees in Nampa last year.
The company is designing and building its own plant. DeBlasio said Gayle will likely offer permanent jobs to some of the Treasure Valley workers it hires for plant construction. Positions will include project managers, welders, materials handlers and equipment operators. The company trains its employees and can certify welders in-house, he said.
The expansion would boost the region's manufacturing sector, said Ethan Mansfield, regional economist at Idaho Department of Labor. Since 2009, the Treasure Valley has lost 23 percent of its manufacturing jobs, including jobs lost when Micron Technology Inc. ended semiconductor production in Boise. Expansion in food processing has carried the region's manufacturing sector recently, Mansfield said.
"It might not be as sexy as software publishing, but Gayle Manufacturing Co.'s expansion would be just as significant in the long run, because we have a manufacturing cluster that has been developing in the Valley for some time," Mansfield said.
A ONE-MAN BUSINESS FOUNDED IN THE '60S
DeBlasio, 69, started Gayle Manufacturing and Machine Co. by himself in his Sacramento garage in 1968.
Over the years, the company's core business shifted from machining to industrial sheet metal, then to designing and building turnkey industrial plants,then to fabricating structural steel for commercial buildings.
Gayle welds and machines the beams to fit specifications for each project. DeBlasio estimates Gayle Manufacturing Co. has built and installed the steel in 1,000 buildings in the Bay Area,where the company is among the top 10 in its industry.
Before the company opened its Nampa plant, it machined the beams for the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa and erected the structural steel for the project in two and a half days. Today, all of its projects are in California.
DESIGN, MANAGEMENT ALREADY IN NAMPA
Managing California projects in Idaho won't be any different without the Woodland plant because the design and project management teams are already in Nampa, DeBlasio said.
"We know what we're getting into," DeBlasio said. "We're not making a decision to come here. We're already here."
DeBlasio has reduced his role at the company, starting with his decision six years ago to share ownership with his workers throughan employee stock ownership plan. He has spent the last year designing the new plant and evaluating possible sites.
Site selection is tricky, DeBlasio said, requiring rail access - for delivering raw beams to Gayle and taking finished beams to California - and soil conditions that can support heavy beams and equipment.
The company considered a site on Cherry Lane in Nampa. The Nampa City Council approved rezoning the site to heavy industrial to accommodate the plan. The company ultimately went with the Caldwell site for geological reasons, DeBlasio said.
Source: http://www.idahostatesman.com/