Article Last Updated: 6/23/2005 10:25 PM

 

 

Carlisle to bring 2nd plant to Tooele

 

By Steven Oberbeck
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake
Tribune

 

A North Carolina-based manufacturer of construction, transportation and industrial products intends to increase its presence in Utah.
    The Carlisle Companies Inc., now in the midst of building a new 250,000-square-foot roofing membrane production plant in Tooele for its Carlisle SynTec subsidiary, said Thursday it plans to build a second plant for another of its operating arms.
    The second Tooele facility will be constructed for Carlisle's Hunter Panels subsidiary, which manufactures roofing insulation used in industrial and commercial buildings at four other locations in the United States.
    "Usually, the two companies [SynTec and Hunter Panels] have similar-sized plants," said Mari Killian, a spokeswoman for Carlisle SynTec.
    Carlisle announced in August that it intended to build a manufacturing facility in Tooele for Carlisle SynTec that would employ about 70 people. Production equipment for that plant is now being delivered, Killian said, indicating that the new facility will open in October or early November.
    While additional details of the new Hunter Panels plant were unavailable from the company, a statement from Carlisle chief executive Richmond McKinnish said the two facilities were paired up in Tooele to "enhance both Hunter Panel's and Carlisle SynTec's service capabilities to the Western United States and Canadian markets."
    Like Carlisle SynTec, the new Hunter Panels plant will be built in the Utah Industrial Depot, a 1,700-acre business park that once was part of Tooele Army Depot, which was closed by the U.S. Army in 1995.
    The Hunter Panels plant will solidify Carlisle's position as one of the Tooele area's major employers.
   Employees at the Carlisle SynTec facility are expected to make approximately $13 an hour plus benefits, a pay scale that could be duplicated at the new Hunter Panels plant.
    Carlisle's announcement of a second plant surprised Tooele City economic development officials.
    "They had talked early on about bringing in another product line, but we hadn't heard if that meant they were going to expand their SynTec plant or build another," said Brian Berendt, Tooele's economic development director.
    steve@sltrib.com