Big roof building coming  

Written by Audrey Rock

Tooele Transcript Bulletin

February 18, 2005

Tooele's Utah Industrial Depot scored a major addition this week, with the sale of 50 acres of land to Carlisle SynTec Incorporated. The company & a leading manufacturer of single-ply roofing systems & will be constructing a thermoplastic roofing manufacturing facility in Tooele that will have a nearly $30 million impact on the city and create 70 new full time jobs.

"We're excited they're coming," said Tooele Mayor Charlie Roberts. "They're making a significant capital investment in the community. They're going to be hiring skilled workers, and that's what we're looking to bring out here."

The full-time jobs will start around $13-$13.50 per hour. And although 70 workers don't necessarily constitute an explosion of new jobs, Roberts is pleased with the solid growth and that most of the hiring for the new plant will be done locally.

"I think they're going to bring in one or two managers, and the rest will be hired from the local work force," said Roberts. "That's what we want. Our main concern is getting quality jobs into the community so fewer people have to make the commute."

The multimillion dollar Tooele plant will be an addition to Carlisle SynTec's other plants, which are located in Chicago, Illinois; Kingston, New York; and Lake City, Florida. An additional plant in Terrel, Texas will be construction in 2005 as well.

Carlisle SynTec is a 40-plus year old company that credits itself with pioneering te U.S. production of sheet membrane roofing, and with installing nearly ten billion square feet of its own roofing membrane worldwide. The company is a publicly owed corporation whose $2 billion parent company's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

The agreement that brought the company to Tooele included a $1.5 million incentive, which will not be paid up front but will be generated annually based on property tax revenues the plant generates.

The transaction ended a lengthy year-long bid process for UID, which was competing with several different sites in several states for the sale. Roberts said Tooele was in final competition with locations in Arizona and Nevada. The Carlisle SynTec contract is, to date, the largest transaction ever completed at UID.

Carlisle SynTec cited Tooele's proximity to the I-80 freeway, Salt Lake International Airport, and to the Salt Lake area's nearby 1.6 million population base as reasons they chose Tooele as the site for the new facility. Nearby rail service nearby for manufacturing and distribution also made the decision easier. Roberts says work ethic probably had a lot to do with it as well.

"They liked the fact that our community is generally a blue collar community," he said. "They know that they can find good workers out here. And they found that out by doing their own research, by talking to other businesses out at the Industrial Depot. And I think they found that they could work with elected leaders and staff really well."

The sentiment isn't one-sided & Roberts says the community has been extremely supportive of this acquisition, and that it's been almost devoid of opposition. "This is the kind of growth virtually everyone agrees on," he said. "We can only gain from this. They're bringing us the extra jobs, and their shipments are virtually all by rail, so there will be little or no impact on transportation."

And, he adds, Carlisle Syntec's positioning in Tooele can only help to bring more attention to the benefits of running a business out of Utah Industrial Depot. In fact, he says, they are already looking at potential companies that will compliment their industry.

Eventually, they hope to gain even more. "We've been through this process, and we think our niche is with the smaller manufacturing firms," said Roberts. "We'd like to position ourselves to help them grow, and we think we're perfect for that, with the way we're located and the things we have to offer."

Utah Industrial Depot, a private facility located on 1400 acres of land formerly used by the Tooele Army Depot, is now home to 2.5 million square feet of building space and expansive undeveloped land. Currently, around 50 businesses & including Al & Lid's Furniture and the Tooele County School District & make UID their home.

The latest addition to UID has already broken ground. Construction on Carlisle SynTec's 212,000 square foot facility will likely be completed early this summer, according to Roberts.

"They're moving along," he said. "They're already stirring up a lot of dirt out there. And by dirt, I mean mud. It's a mess, but it's really exciting to see it coming together already."

Carlisle says the facility will be the first of its kind in the western United States. The manufacturing and storage facility will produce Carlisle's Sure-Weld TPO single-ply roofing membranes and accessory products.

This new addition to Tooele industry is happening quickly. By summer, another change to the community will already be firmly in place. So did Carlisle Syntec make the right choice in making Tooele their newest hub for roofing products?

"Of course," said Roberts. "They absolutely did. We welcome them. It will be a good, solid addition to the Utah Industrial Depot. We're really looking forward to this."