Go Utah incentivizes 500+ jobs: Leitner-Poma factory coming to Tooele Co.
Brice Wallace
An aerial lift manufacturer will get some assistance from the state to build a $35 million manufacturing plant in Tooele.
Leitner-Poma of America, based in Grand Junction, Colorado, was approved for a tax credit incentive of up to $6.53 million over 10 years by the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah) board at the board’s May meeting.
The company plans to build a 130,000-square-foot facility and add 236 jobs over the next decade. Prior to the board meeting, news media reports pegged the project investment at $27 million.
The new Utah campus will serve as the headquarters and manufacturing base for Skytrac, an LPOA subsidiary. Leitner-Poma has installed aerial and surface systems worldwide. It engineers, manufactures, installs and services all types of ropeway systems for the ski industry, amusement parks and urban transport. The Leitner-Poma network includes more than 10,000 transportation systems in 61 countries and safely transports 8 million passengers each hour.
“New ropeway systems are rising at a record-setting pace worldwide, and domestically Utah’s expanding ski and outdoor industry are prime evidence of this growth,” Daren Cole, LPOA president, said in a prepared statement.
“We’re proud to produce all Skytrac parts and nearly all LPOA parts in America. This new Utah-based facility will allow us to continue to grow our American-made capabilities while growing LPOA’s employee base in Utah by nearly 60 percent. We have a long-term commitment to our ‘Made in America’ initiative and are excited to bring more jobs to the region in support of that.”
Bud Haupt, the company’s chief financial officer, told the Go Utah board that the facility, to be on 25 acres, will start with adding 100 employees and then reach 236 in 10 years.
“We’re so excited to be coming to Utah. … First off, we have a subsidiary company already located in Salt Lake called Skytrac that builds fixed-rope chairlifts,” Haupt said. “We’ve found it a fantastic place to do business, and therefore when we had this expansion project, [we] thought, ‘What a great place to be is in the Utah area and the Salt Lake area.’”
The plant will produce ropeways for tourism, cities and ski lifts for both Skytrac and Leitner-Poma. An affiliated company will use it for service and distribution for its snow groomers and tracked vehicles.
The Tooele facility will feature solar panels and a 162-foot-tall wind turbine to meet its power needs.
The project is expected to result in nearly $158.9 million in new total wages over the next decade and new state tax revenue of nearly $21.8 million during that time.
Steve Neeleman, chairman of the Go Utah board’s incentives committee, said the $110,805 average wage for the new jobs is“more than twice average county wage, which is remarkable.” He also noted that the new plant will use relatively little water.
“Seems like a remarkable company and we’re thrilled to have them come,” Neeleman said.
“We have interacted with them on several occasions, and I am telling you, we could not be more thrilled that they have chosen Tooele City to come and locate their manufacturing business,” Tooele Mayor Debbie Winn told the board.
“We have a workforce here that will be able to stay here on this side of the valley and not have to be out on the road and come into the Salt Lake Valley. … We are thrilled. They are a fantastic company and we appreciate the opportunity to have them locate here.”
In a prepared statement, Go Utah executive director Ryan Starks said Leitner-Poma is “a natural fit for our state’s outdoor recreation-focused community, and we look forward to its contributions.”
“We welcome the continued growth of Leitner-Poma’s global manufacturing and distribution operations in Utah,” said Scott Cuthbertson, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah. “Utah is home not only to ‘The Greatest Snow on Earth’ but also to a young and hard-working labor force that will benefit from these new jobs.”
Go Utah does not provide upfront cash incentives. Each year that an incentivized company meets the obligations in its contract with the state, it will qualify to receive a portion of the new, additional state taxes the company paid to the state.