The company launched in Indiana in 2015, according to owner and president Jorden Hall. It considered establishing a site in Xenia, Brookville, New Lebanon, West Carrollton and Xenia, “basically anywhere within a 40-mile radius of Dayton,” before opting for the South Alex Road property in March.
“We looked at many other locations,” Hall said. “This property was much more accommodating.”
Project upgrades include $297,000 in permanent building improvements and $148,000 in capital equipment at the site, which sits on 4.3 acres adjacent to the Norfolk- Southern railway.
The upgrades are expected to result in a 10-fold improvement of employee production in some processes and empower the company to be able to provide health insurance to employees on Jan. 1.
Family-owned Cornerstone provides an average wage of $25 an hour, or $52,000 a year, Hall said.
West Carrollton officials believe the project is a strong candidate for consideration for $150,000 in Montgomery County Economic Development/Government Equity, or ED/GE funding because the estimated $1.3 million investment by Cornerstone will result in “the revitalization and activation of an underutilized parcel,” West Carrollton City Manager Amber Holloway said in an Oct. 30 letter to Montgomery County Commissioners.
“This in turn will result in permanent improvements to the facility, leading to an increase in our local tax base, while retaining four current employees and creating an estimated 10 additional manufacturing jobs,” Holloway said.
The county’s ED/GE grants have been a Dayton-area economic incentive since 1992. The program is based on countywide sales tax proceeds from participating communities.
West Carrollton presented more information about the project to an ED/GE advisory committee Thursday afternoon ahead of the committee’s vote on funding recommendations Nov. 22. County commissioners get the final say on the grant.
Hall said the proposal to immediately expand Cornerstone’s sheet metal manufacturing operations at the site “would not be possible without ED/GE funding.”
The building’s acquisition, electric upgrades and installation of capital equipment are expected to take place early next year, according to an ED/GE Program application. A 20,000-square-foot expansion of the facility’s office is slated to start in March and end in June.
Cornerstone occupies 10,000 square feet of the facility. Future phases of its expansion there include plans to set up production lines in the remaining 11,672 square feet of the building, to repair and to and to utilize covered storage in the lumber yard, and to utilize railroad access.
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