Tower manufacturer plans 639 jobs in Indiana expansion

Nello Corp. Inc., a designer and manufacturer of galvanized steel towers and poles, plans to move its Fort Worth, Texas, operations to Indiana, creating as many as 639 jobs by 2023, the state announced Thursday morning.

Nello plans two new facilities in its headquarters city of South Bend to accommodate the relocation. A 250,000-square-foot plant should be built by early next year, it said. Another 250,000-square-foot facility should follow in the next five years.

Nello said it anticipates additional expansion of its corporate headquarters in downtown South Bend. The relocation should take place over the 18 months.

The company, which already has about 75 employees in Indiana, expects to begin hiring next year for positions in manufacturing, information technology, engineering and administration.

Founded in 2002 by engineer Dan Ianello, Nello is one of the largest tower providers to the wireless communications industry. The company produces more than 1,000 structures annually for customers including Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and AT&T.

Nello currently operates an 80,000-square-foot tapered pole plant in Fort Worth. It also has two facilities in Bremen, about 20 miles from South Bend—a 75,000-square-foot lattice tower plant and a 40,000-square-foot shipping center.

“We are fortunate that our company has had and maintained rapid growth and expansion every year since our inception,” said Ianello, president of Nello, in a prepared statement. “Our main goal was to locate and establish a permanent home for our company's continued expansion while simultaneously improving our ability to reach our customers in a timely fashion and deliver a superior product to our growing customer base.”

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Nello up to $2.9 million in conditional tax credits and up to $75,000 in training grants based on the company’s job-creation plans. The city of South Bend will consider additional incentives.