Indianapolis machining company partners with city and state for expansion

Major Tool & Machine (www.majortool.com), an engineering, fabrication and machining services company in Indianapolis, Ind. is investing $20 million, creating 50 new jobs and adding 150,000 square feet of manufacturing space and automated production equipment to its operations after receiving a contract to manufacture steel centrifuge casings for USEC, Inc.'s new American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

"Major Tool is a home-grown Indiana company and a prime example of a high-growth business that is investing in Indiana and creating jobs for hard-working Hoosiers," said Lt. Governor Becky Skillman.

“This is a proud day in our company's 60-year history," said J. Stephen Weyreter, president and chief executive officer of Major Tool & Machine. "The growth of our business and our partnership with the City of Indianapolis and the State of Indiana will allow Major Tool & Machine to increase our workforce by 20 percent and double our operational space. This project greatly boosts our capabilities, efficiency and capacity."

Major Tool will grow its Indianapolis presence adjacent to its current facility on the grounds of the former Ertel Manufacturing facility. Once a cornerstone of the Indianapolis community and economy, the Ertel facility closed in 2002 and fell into disrepair. A partnership between the City of Indianapolis and the Indiana Finance Authority's Brownfields Program helped return the site to productive use and ready for Major Tool's expansion.

"To allow for the business expansion, the city invested more than $3 million to clean-up a former brownfield site, a long-standing health and environmental concern for residents in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood," said Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson. "To couple this significant environmental accomplishment with a major expansion of a home-grown business is a huge victory to the city of Indianapolis. We are so pleased that Major Tool & Machine is expanding its Indianapolis operations and is turning a once-blighted, abandoned piece of property into a place where people earning a good-wage are producing precision-made products that are shipped worldwide."

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered Major Tool up to $620,000 in performance-based tax credits and up to $200,000 in training grants based on the company's job creation plans. The State of Indiana will also provide a $37,140 grant to the City of Indianapolis to assist with off-site infrastructure improvements needed for the project. The City of Indianapolis will assist Major Tool in removing the existing building and with environmental remediation of the site.

"The Indiana Finance Authority's Indiana Brownfields Program has invested almost $600,000 in this project plus countless hours in technical and legal assistance," said Jennifer M. Alvey, public finance director. "Redeveloping our State's brownfield sites not only revitalizes the spirit of communities, but leads to new businesses and jobs."