ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Miller Bros. Const. Builds New Shop South Of Archbold





Workers at the Miller Bros. Construction shop building, located on St. Rt. 66 in Henry County just south of the Fulton-Henry county line, were busy yesterday, Tuesday. The almost- 40,000-square-foot building is to be completed in August or September. The cost is estimated at more than $5 million.– photo by David Pugh

Workers at the Miller Bros. Construction shop building, located on St. Rt. 66 in Henry County just south of the Fulton-Henry county line, were busy yesterday, Tuesday. The almost- 40,000-square-foot building is to be completed in August or September. The cost is estimated at more than $5 million.– photo by David Pugh

Miller Bros. Construction is constructing a new shop facility south of Archbold in Henry County.

Brad Miller, president of the company, said the firm outgrew the old equipment maintenance shop in Archbold, and there wasn’t additional space available in the village.

What won’t move to the new site will be most of the company offices.

The equipment group will move its offices to the new building, as well as those who work in safety.

The company already owned land in Henry County on the east side of St. Rt. 66, south of the county line road.

There is a building there for Miller Bros.’ bridge-building business, and there was space available for the new building, which covers about 40,000 square feet.

Company officials had been thinking about a new shop building for years. He said sketches have been made, and pictures taken of other similar types of facilities.

The new building will feature two overhead cranes, allowing the company to do more heavy work.

Miller Bros. couldn’t do some of that work at the old shop, because there just wasn’t the space available in the old building.

The old shop building will become cold storage.

More Than $5 Million

Miller said the price tag of the new building is about $5.62 million.

The overall price of the new facility was kept down by the company doing its own site preparation and by having its own steel company, based in Holland, set the steel for the new building.

Jennifer Arps, administrator of the Henry County Community Improvement Corporation, said the Henry County commissioners approved a 60% property tax exemption on new construction for a period of 10 years.

Arps said the company committed to create six fulltime permanent positions within a three-year period. The company also agreed to $420,000 of additional payroll, plus or minus 25%.

She said there is no estimate on how much the company will save over the life of the agreement.

Miller said moving the shop to the Henry County site was not an effort to avoid the village of Archbold municipal income tax.

The company already owned the land in Henry County, and there wasn’t enough space available at the Archbold site.

During the height of the construction season, Miller Brothers employs as many as 500 people.

Anxious

Miller said people from the company are ready to get into the new building, which should be ready by August or September.

“It’s like building a house. You’re anxious to get in,” he said.


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