Walmore Road will look a lot different in a few year’s time, as Saint-Gobain works toward a $41.5 million expansion project.
“There’s a lot of old, unused building on the site,” said project manager Chris Ciccarelli, with the project being handled by subsidiary NorPro. “There is some cleanup work that needs to be done.”
Workers would demolish 350,000 square feet of unused buildings and repurpose as much material from that as they can. From there, the new 125,000-square-foot space would be built complete with two production lines for making catalyst carriers used in the chemical, petrochemical and biofuel industries.
Saint-Gobain anticipates demolition work to start in April with construction starting later in the year, and the new facility would be ready for operation in the first quarter of 2028. Ciccarelli added prospects looked good for a second expansion phase of up to 300,000 square feet.
The Paris-based company, with a history dating back to 1665 and operations in early 80 countries, is a world leader in ceramics, abrasives, insulation, containers, packaging, plastics, and building materials. This would be its second North American manufacturing site for catalytic products.
Saint-Gobain has operated in Niagara County at 6600 Walmore Road since acquiring Carborundum in 1995. It sold the facility in 2006 and operated there through a sale-leaseback agreement, but it was reported it bought the property back for $3.8 million from Patriot Equities of Pennsylvania.
The 625,372-square-foot existing facility manufactures synthetic abrasives like sandpaper.
The existing buildings on the proposed site were part of the former Bell Aerospace facility and are polluted. That requires work with the State Historic Preservation Office for possible state and federal historic tax credits and the state Department of Environmental Conservation which could yield other incentives.
Saint-Gobain is asking the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency for $7.27 million in tax incentives, of which $4.78 million is property tax exemptions, $2 million in sales tax exemptions, and $ 285,000 is mortgage recording tax exemptions. The company already employs 63 workers in Niagara County and would add 30 more with an average salary of $60,600.
The submitted project documents state that this is predicated on state and local economic assistance and, “Without such assistance, the project decision would have favored Ohio (the competing location).”
Listed project costs include $19 million for contraction, $18 million for new equipment, $4.02 million for property acquisition, and $500,000 for other soft costs.
The project is also receiving a $1 million grant from the New York Excelsior program and looking to get an unspecified job training grant. It has also applied to the New York Power Authority for additional hydropower.
Agency Counsel Mark Gabriele said that because of the project’s size, it would be deemed a type 1 SEQR action with the Town of Wheatfield being the lead agency. Until the town grants a negative declaration, the agency cannot grant these incentives.
“If there is a delay, it’s nothing out of the ordinary,” Gabriele said.
A public hearing on this will take place at 2 p.m. on March 4 at the Niagara County Center for Economic Development board room.