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Machine tool plant to move from Canada to Wheatfield

By Thomas J. Prohaska

 WHEATFIELD — Racer Machinery International, a Canadian machine tool company, is planning to move its factory here, bringing 15 to 20 new jobs to an industrial park owned by the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency.

The IDA board last week approved the sale of six acres in the Vantage International Pointe industrial park off Lockport Road.

Don Zoran, Racer’s president and founder, said he wants to move his plant from Cambridge, Ont., where it’s been since 1990, to be closer to its U. S. customer base. However, a project summary released by the IDA said Racer’s research and development department will stay in Cambridge while the manufacturing moves here.

Zoran said he also considered moving his plant to Ohio, but he chose Wheatfield, and not just because it was closer to Canada, although that was a factor.

“The service that was provided by the development agency was a lot warmer [than in Ohio],” Zoran said. “It was a people thing. It wasn’t just because of the tax break.”

Racer will pay $3,500 per acre for the six acres. The original proposal was to charge $5,000 an acre and then rebate the company $1,500 an acre after it broke ground, but the IDA board decided to cut out the extra step.

The company also is expected to apply for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, arrangement from the IDA on its planned 16,000-square-foot plant, which is to be expandable to 36,000 square feet.

But Zoran said economic conditions have the timeline of the project in question. “We have to see how we do with the funding,” he said.

In other matters, the IDA board approved 15-year PILOT deals for two other Wheatfield companies.

Viatran Corp. broke ground Nov. 13 for its new plant in Woodlands Corporate Park off Shawnee Road. It is moving here from Grand Island. The company makes pressure and level management devices. It is bringing in 45 jobs and expects to add 30 more.

Sunlight Solutions, a manufacturer of equipment for hydroponic greenhouses, will be constructing a new plant at Walmore and Lockport roads. It will bring 18 workers from its current Niagara Falls Boulevard site and promises to add six jobs within two years.

The board also agreed to approach the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, co-owner with the IDA of the Niagara Industrial Suites multitenant facility on Niagara Falls Boulevard, about a building expansion.

One of the tenants, Conestoga-Rover and Associates, wants to add 3,750 square feet to its site there. The $330,000 cost estimate is a year and a half old, IDA Finance Manager Gary Kelsey said.

“We’ve been working with them for a year and a half. Eventually, we’re going to have to answer them. They’ve already consolidated some of their operations in downtown Buffalo,” Kelsey said of Conestoga-Rover, an environmental engineering firm. “They’re a good tenant. With the economy, they haven’t been pushing for [the expansion] as much, but they do ask every once in a while.”

tprohaska@buffnews.com