AUBURN — Heidtman Steel Products Inc. of Butler has chosen rural Butler for an expansion of its company.
Brett Wells and Greg Goad told the DeKalb County Council Monday that Heidtman plans to build a 108,000-square-foot building on a 40-acre site it will buy from neighboring Steel Dynamics Inc.
Heidtman will ask to amend a tax abatement the council granted for an $11 million plant expansion to take in a different, larger plant site.
According to plans when the abatement was approved in September, Heidtman wanted to build the new plant on a six-acre site now used by SDI for a parking lot.
“We now realize we have a much greater growth potential, and with the larger site we can expand two more times,” Goad explained.
According to county attorney Jim McCanna, the change in the tax abatement will not require another public hearing. It will need to go before the council’s abatement committee for approval as an amendment.
Goad and Wells said the expansion is “going forward in a hurry,” with new equipment expected for delivery in May or June.
The new plant will have first-of-its-kind steel processing equipment to produce sheet products for truck manufacturers, the Heidtman representatives said.
The expansion is expected to create 50 new jobs at an average wage of $40,000 a year. Heidtman currently employs about 200 people in DeKalb County.
In September, Heidtman was considering Cleveland and Butler as possible sites for the expansion.
