Ohio Steel Industries Inc. plans to invest $8.2 million to develop a vacant manufacturing plant in Delaware, Ohio, and rehire the former employees for a plastic pipe and custom extrusion operation.
Founded in 1958, OSI opened its doors as a structural steel fabricator then added a plastics division — OSI Plastics — in 1975 that originally produced sewer pipes but expanded into products and profiles for utilities and telecommunications companies in the U.S. and Europe.
OSI has an option to purchase an 11-acre site with a 36,000-square-foot plant that housed Chroma Color Corp. until those operations moved to North Carolina in October, according to a local media report from Columbus Business First.
OSI is proposing a two-phased development for the site, Columbus Business First says. The first phase calls for a new rail spur to access the existing railroad track, an outdoor storage area, new silos and site work to prepare for future expansion. The second phase calls for building an addition on to the existing building, a new 36,000-square-foot facility or both projects.
If the work is approved and completed, OSI plans to hire 52 full-time employees, including most of the former Chroma Color workers who were previously employed at the site, the local media also reported.
The average annual wages for these employees would be $52,000.
If Ohio Steel expands in Delaware, the company will create $2.6 million in payroll and generate $48,100 in new income taxes to the city annually.
Local officials plan to offer a performance-based economic incentive grant to facilitate the $8.2 million project.
Built in 1992, the vacant plant was not spurring much interest for redevelopment until Ohio Steel officials came along, according to Delaware Economic Development Director Sean Hughes.
Ohio Steel CEO Doug Hill found the building "to be perfect for his plastic pipe and custom plastics extrusion products manufacturing," Hughes said in a letter to Planning and Community Development Director Dave Efland.
"Due to the significant increase in employment and payroll that this project is committing over the previous occupancy by Chroma Color, the city is very desirous of attracting Ohio Steel to the ... location," Hughes also said in the letter.
With annual sales of $18.5 million in 2020, Ohio Steel ranked No. 111 among North American pipe, profile and tubing producers, according to Plastics News data.