A Monett-based company that manufactures commercial windows, storefronts and walls plans to lease space for a 45,000-square-foot service center at 2030 N. Alliance Ave. in Springfield’s Partnership Industrial Center West.
EFCO Corp., a Pella company, plans to open a service center in Springfield by midsummer that will create 20 jobs and serve as headquarters for the company’s expanded storefront operations, said James Bateman, director of the storefront division.
Employees at the facility will manufacture and sell commercial storefronts and entrance doors, typically to glass shops, Bateman said. Storefronts can range from a single story to multistory structures for retail shopping centers, schools, universities, hospitals, office buildings, churches and government or institutional entities.
EFCO also manufactures architectural windows, curtain walls and entry systems for commercial needs.
Bateman said Springfield’s proximity to Monett, where EFCO employs 1,600 as the town’s leading employer, was practical.
“We’re about 30 to 45 minutes away,” Bateman said. “With the shipping companies (in Springfield), being able to get product (any direction) from Springfield, it just kind of made sense and at the same time, it was still close to the mothership.”
Bateman is hopeful that EFCO will employ more than the 20 initial workers at PIC West.
“We expect to be in the range of 30 to 35 at the end of the first year, and then hopefully business is great and we can keep going from there,” Bateman said.
R-C-R LLC, which is registered to Rich Kramer, owns the PIC West building, and Rich Kramer Construction will perform the infill work, Bateman said.
EFCO signed a five-year lease with options, said Kyle Estes, a salesman with Nixa-based Gregg Stancer Realty, who represented EFCO in negotiations.
“There are (EFCO) service centers that have been (open) for 15 to 20 years-plus. They fully expect that here.”
Neither the lease terms nor the construction cost was disclosed.
Springfield wasn’t the only place EFCO considered for expansion.
“We looked at Joplin, we looked at some places in between, we looked down into Arkansas,” Bateman said. “In this whole corridor, we screened those areas pretty well.”
EFCO also operates service centers in Las Vegas, Chicago and Verona, Va., and distribution centers in Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Lubbock and Wylie, Texas.
There are eight companies currently operating at PIC West. Stamina Products occupies two buildings, and there are two 75,000-square-foot buildings available, according to Ryan Mooney, vice president of business development for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.
“We have developed or sold 125 acres with 195 acres remaining,” Mooney said.[[In-content Ad]]
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