Two manufacturers plan new plants in Whitestown, nearly 200 jobs

Two manufacturers are making plans to open plants in Whitestown, where they expect to hire a total of almost 200 workers over the next six years.

Royal Interpack Midwest, which makes fresh-food packaging, said it intends to spend $20 million to equip a 130,000-square-foot facility in Allpoints at Anson business park that will employ 130 people.

NTN Bearing Corp. of America, the world’s third-largest bearing manufacturer, plans to spend $2.1 million on equipment to open a 280,000-square-foot plant with 68 workers in a new building in Perry Industrial Park.

Both plants would be near the State Road 267 interchange with Interstate 65.

Before finalizing their plans, both companies are requesting personal property tax abatements from Whitestown. The Whitestown Redevelopment Commission is scheduled to vote on the incentives Monday night. If approved by the commission, the full Whitestown Town Council would vote on the tax breaks Tuesday night.

The companies could begin work on the new plants as soon as next month.

Royal Interpack Midwest

Royal Interpack Midwest is a division of Riverside, California-based Royal Interpack North America, a subsidiary of Thailand-based Royal Group.
 
The company, which makes rigid food packaging out of recycled plastic, invested almost $12 million to establish a plant in Anderson in 2015, but has already reached capacity at that site. High demand for its containers from processors, packers and distributors has prompted the company to seek an expansion of its operation in the Midwest.

Royal Interpack is considering leasing the remaining space in the Telemon Building, at 4656 Anson Boulevard. The $20 million investment would be in addition to undisclosed real estate costs, the company said.

The company could hire as many as 60 employees this year, another 30 in 2019, and 10 each year from 2020 to 2023. The jobs are expected top pay average wage of $18.91 per hour, plus benefits.

Royal Interpack requested a seven-year abatement to save it about $910,000 on its personal property taxes, but the Boone County Economic Development Commission is recommending a six-year abatement that will save it about $761,000 over the abatement period.

It would still pay about $600,000 in personal property taxes over the abatement period.
 
NTN Bearing Corp.
 
NTN Bearing is a subsidiary of Japan-based NTN Corp., which has several plants in Indiana. It established NTN Driveshaft operations in Columbus in 1990, an NTK Precision Axle plant in Frankfort in 2004, and broke ground on NTN Driveshaft Anderson in 2015. The parent company was founded in 1918 and headquartered in Osaka.

Last March, the company announced plans to open a $100 million Precision Axle plant in Anderson, where it would hire 200 workers.

NTN Bearing said it would hire about 53 workers at the plant in the first year. Average salaries would be $17.66 per hour, plus benefits.

The company is seeking a five-year abatement that would save it almost $69,000 in personal property taxes. It would pay about $38,000 in personal property taxes during the abatement period.

The company is considering leasing manufacturing and distribution space built on a speculative basis by Becknell Industrial at 5288 Performance Way.

NTN Bearing's customers include Caterpillar, Ford Motor Co. and Navistar International Corp.