Maxi-Blast Inc., which specializes in plastic blast media used for finishing and deflashing, is boosting its operations in St. Petersburg, Fla., breaking ground on a 40,000-square-foot facility. It is expected to be ready by early November.
“We've been working on the project for three to four years with R.R. Simmons and it has taken three to four years to find a piece of property. We had looked at several and we were getting to the point where we might have had to look elsewhere,” said Robert Donaldson, Vice President of Manufacturing/Florida Operations for Maxi-Blast during a telephone interview.
He said that the company has had manufacturing operations in St. Petersburg since 1978. They currently work out of two buildings in St. Petersburg that total 30,000 square feet.
Donaldson that it is important to the company and its employees that it stay in St. Petersburg and that's why they took the time to search. The new property is on 3 acres which the city re-zoned from retail to manufacturing. R.R. Simmons is working on a plan to keep the building aesthetically pleasing to fit in with the neighborhood.
“It will be a fully air-conditioned facility which we do not now have,” he said.
Donaldson said that the new facility will have new Davis-Standard extruders as well as a ConAir material handling supply system. He said it will have a unique underground conveying system to dry and feed its raw materials. The building will also feature a demonstration area for its machinery.
The $5 million project will allow the company to consolidate Florida operations in one state-of-the-art building by January, he said.
Maxi-Blast is headquartered in a 45,000-square-foot building in South Bend, Ind., and also has a 65,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Cincinnati.
The company provides blast media for plastic molding and extrusion, rubber molding, paint and powder coating removal, surface preparation, electronics deflashing and any areas needing non-abrasive media.
