After nearly a year-long delay, a company that will make huge towers for wind turbines is moving ahead with plans for a $19 million plant at the Port of Monroe that might create about 150 jobs.
Ventower Industries LLC will break ground Tuesday for a 115,000-square-foot facility on 38 acres at the Port of Monroe. The factory should be in operation within nine to 12 months, said Gregory Adanin, chief executive officer.
Its initial timetable called for the plant to be completed and operating by now, but as plans jelled, the nation slipped deeper into recession, tightening credit and slowing demand.
But since the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, project financing and demand for wind power products has improved, Mr. Adanin explained. The company was approved this year for $2.6 million in federal energy manufacturing tax credits through the ARRA. It also has been approved for $4.4 million in state tax credits.
The single-story pre-fabricated steel building will be erected at 111 Borchert Park Dr. off E. Front St. Mr. Adanin said as many as 300 workers will be employed in building the plant. “We anticipate the plant will be able to make 250 towers per year,” he said.
The company will receive thick steel plates, form them into conical shapes and weld them to make towers that will range in height from 60 to 120 feet. The products will be finished and painted at the plant, with interior ladders, pulleys or elevators installed, before being shipped to intended customers, usually by barge.
Plans for the project first took shape in early 2008 and company officials had narrowed their choice of sites to Toledo or Monroe.
Mr. Adanin said the firm chose Monroe because of the compelling case local officials made for the location as well as the fact that the company’s principals were all from Michigan and wanted to see the plant developed in state, if possible.
“We considered the city and the folks at the Port as our partners in the very early stage,” Mr. Adanin said. He said city and port officials excelled at explaining the advantages of the port, the training options and skilled work force available.
The firm first took the name Great Lakes Tower but changed it to communicate a more global reach, Mr. Adanin said. The Ventower name is derived from the Latin ventus, meaning wind, and “tower.”
The company is partnering with Monroe County Community College to provide a trained work force. Mr. Adanin said information about jobs at the firm will be posted at some point in the future on the company Web site at www.ventower,com.
Monroe City Manager George A. Brown said the city and port will benefit from the project, not only in terms of new jobs, but with infrastructure improvements such as a rail spur and dock improvements that will make the port area more attractive to other industries. Those improvements probably will occur this year, he said.
The port property, a reclaimed brownfield, will be transferred to Ventower’s ownership for $100. Mr. Brown said the city also intends to grant a 50 percent tax break on Ventower’s real and personal property.
Amid an economy that continues to struggle, the new plant is “a shining moment” for the city, said Mayor Robert E. Clark. He said it not only puts Monroe in the alternative energy picture, but will provide it with alternative manufacturing that will help diversify the economy.
City Manager Brown said the city worked with the state economic development officials and local legislators to put a package of incentives together to land the project.
Mr. Adanin, a Brownstown resident, worked previously as director of operations for Metaloy of the United Kingdom, buying and selling steel. He said when it dawned on him that wind generation was becoming a growth industry and that a wind tower involves a huge amount of steel, he decided to strike out on his own with a company to supply the towers.
Expected to attend the groundbreaking Tuesday are Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell, state legislators and local officials.
 

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