A match made in heaven - between an idle factory and an eager entrepreneur who saw its promise - will bring 150 jobs and a state-of-the-art "green" company to Satsop Development Park.
NewWood Corporation signed the paperwork to purchase the closed plant, the machinery inside and the patent rights from a previous owner who began construction of the plant in 2001. NewWood Corporation is the parent company to NewWood Manufacturing Inc., which will manufacture a unique wood-plastic composite utility board material, "Polyply," to be used in products such as fruit bins, pallets, fencing, concrete forms and engineered flooring.
NewWood has signed a 20-year-lease with Satsop Development Park with two optional 10-year extensions for the 275,000-square-foot-manufacturing complex on 15 acres.
Financing for NewWood was arranged through a combination of a loan provided by Enterprise Cascadia and the sale of federal tax credits to U.S. Bancorp. Enterprise Cascadia is a certified non-profit Community Development Financial Institution serving urban and rural communities of Oregon and Washington.
While the plant will take about four months to be fully "recommissioned," the hiring process will begin immediately. NewWood plans to hire 150 people from the area, said John Bowser, president and CEO of NewWood Corporation and NewWood Manufacturing Inc.
NewWood has scheduled an Open House for 11 a.m. Nov. 15 at the NewWood Plant at Satsop Development Park in Elma. In the meantime, job seekers can submit their resumes online at
www.NewWood.com
For more on the story and Satsop Development Park go to: News File or to www.satsop.com
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