THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996 TAG: 9610290429
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 39 lines
A California-based cylinder company will invest $7 million and initially create 125 jobs on the Peninsula when it moves two manufacturing plants to Hampton next year, according to sources close to the deal.
Catalina Cylinders is moving two Cliff Impact Division plants from Ohio and Arkansas to Hampton. The relocation of the two plants will result in an additional 75 jobs within three years, creating a projected total of 200 jobs.
The company expects to begin operating in Hampton in early 1997.
The city of Hampton will hold a news conference today at 1:30 at 2400 Mercedes Drive. Secretary of Commerce and Trade Robert T. Skunda will announce the company's plant relocations to Hampton.
The Santa Ana-based firm manufactures various products, including oxygen and chemical tanks, pistons, connecting rods, automotive wheels and aerospace structural parts. It specializes in metalwork, using forging and machining technology to build its products.
Catalina is buying the former Mercedes Benz building, a 150,000-square-foot building that has been vacant for more than five years.
The Virginia Department of Business Assistance will provide work-force training services to the company.
Catalina's announcement follows a series of other economic development coups for the Peninsula, such as the expansion of Iceland Seafood Corp. and Twinpak Inc., two other manufacturers who are setting up shop in Newport News.
Peninsula economic development officials have aggressively sought to place expanding companies in vacant buildings, particularly those in retail centers.
In Newport News, Bernard C. Harris Publishing Co. expanded its telemarketing division in a vacant building in the Newmarket South Shopping Center; MCI Communications Corp. moved into an empty Lowe's building in the Sherwood Shopping Center; and UPS moved its telemarketing operations into a vacant Kmart store site.
KEYWORDS: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT by CNB