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Manufacturing
Success in Meriden
Downtown's new Walbro plant isn't the only Silver City success story
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Business New Haven
10/23/1995
By: BNH
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Through an aggressive economic development effort, the Silver City is seeking to reclaim a substantial part of its long manufacturing legacy. But the engines of renewal are industries Meriden's early fathers might never have imagined.
High-tech manufacturing, particularly automotive, electronic and biomedical have been the new manufacturing models for Meriden, which continues to resist the shift to a solely service-model economy that has come to characterize many ofther of Connecticut's cities.
And while manufacturing jobs continue their region-wide decline, Meriden is looking to a major new initiative and the continued strength of some existing manufacturers to strengthen that sector overall.
A $6 Million Gamble
A major expansion project at the site of the former Meriden Rolling Mills plant by the Walbro Automotive Corp. became a reality with the announcement last October that the state's Department of Economic Development would provide Walbro with $9.9 million in grants and loans for the new facility. Even before the state's commitment was finalized, however, the city of Meriden, through Manufacturing Assistance Agency, fronted $6 million for the project.
“Walbro is really our No. 1 success story,” says Meriden economic development head Randall Kamerbeek, who managed the project for the city. “There were lots of opportunities for this thing to fail.”
Phase I of the expansion was the purchase and installation of new injection molding machines at Walbro's existing molding facility on Gracey Avenue, which was expanded to accommodate the new equipment. The second phase, for which ground was broken last month, was a new 150,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. According to Walbro controller Marlowe Gronbeck, the new plant will initially house 200 workers following its completion late next summer. By the end of 1996, Walbro's satellite plant in Wallingford will close its doors and its employees will be redeployed to the new plant.
Walbro itself is not the only beneficiary of the project. As Kamerbeek notes, subcontractors such as Earth Technologies Inc. of Hamden and the Wallingford firm of Metcalf & Eddy, which provide on-site environmental engineering, as well as others like Stamford Wrecking and Environmental Waste Tech Inc. (which has performed extensive site remediation work) all derive paydays from the construction process.
Walbro manufactures fuel-delivery modules, a component of fuel-center systems for the automotive industry, according to Gronbeck. “We're original equipment suppliers to the industry.” The Meriden unit of Walbro was founded in 1983 as Whitehead Engineering Products Inc., which was acquired in 1988 by the Michigan-based Walbro. The publicly traded firm's Meriden workforce comprises research and development engineers, molding and assembly manufacturing, materials management and administrative staff.
At a time when manufacturing jobs are fleeing the state and the region in record numbers, the Walbro project stands out as a signal success for Meriden and central Connecticut. In addition to the aid package, Gronbeck cites availability of skilled labor as a key factor in the company's decision to stake a claim here.
“The biggest factor [in the decision] was access to good personnel, both in terms of professional and direct-assembly people,” he says. “We've been able to attract good people.”
Gronbeck estimates Walbro's employment levels will rise from about 550 now to between 700 and 900. Indeed, the DED grant package is based on the combined retention and creation of 700 jobs by December 1998. If a total of 900 jobs are in place by that same date, the $3.4 million loan portion of the Department of Economic Development assistance package will be converted to an outright grant.
So from both a public and private perspective, the project looks like a winner. Says Gronbeck: “We've had a good partnership with the city and the state that allowed us to put together a financial assistance package that made it beneficial for us to do the plant in Meriden.”
Small Successes
Not every Meriden success story is on the scale of the new Walbro plant. A $27,000 city loan enabled Lina DeMasi (see accompanying story) to locate her company's dress factory to 290 Pratt Street, what Kamerbeek calls “the flagship of [the city's] enterprise zone.” ADC Video Systems is adding high-tech manufacturing jobs at warp speed. And the Silver City remains the place where more SNET employees hang their hats than any other municipality with the exception of New Haven.
The city itself got in the commercial real estate business following the 1992 departure of Canberra Industries from a 232,000-square-foot manufacturing facility it leased from a New Jersey real-estate company at One State Street in downtown Meriden.
“When Canberra left,” recalls Kamerbeek, “there was a dispute between the two parties, and for two years the property just sat there, with neither party attempting to market it.”
As Kamerbeek notes, “That became a problem. For reasons having to do with the fact that they were suing each other in court, neither party was paying any attention to it.”
So the city met with Canberra officials in search of a solution. “We talked about what could be done, and we agreed that the most effective way of solving the problem would be to find a way for somebody to purchase the property with a condition that the various lawsuits be dropped..
“We also agreed that because of the nature and location of the property, it probably was best owned by a local group with some sense of the needs of the community,” Kamerbeek continues. “So we formed a non-profit corporation [the Meriden Economic Resources Group], sponsored by the city, borrowed the money privately - essentially, from Canberra - and bought the property. Now they're aggressively out trying to market it.”
Kamerbeek says the long-term goal of the Hub project, as it is known, “is to make it an industrial facility providing jobs for people in the center of the city.”
The deal was closed in March, and the marketing is now in the hands of Sentry Commercial Real Estate Services of New Haven and East Hartford. Kamerbeek says the Hub is best suited to any light manufacturing use.
According to Sentry's Frederick Petrella, about 180,000 of the building's total square footage is available for leasing at $3.75 triple net. The remainder of the space is currently leased to smaller retailers. “We are targeting manufacturers or light assembly users for the building,” Petrella says. “It's what we consider quality economical productive space.”
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