Fairmount Minerals Headquarters Relocating to Chester Township
airmount Minerals is in the process of renovating a building in Chester Township to become its international headquarters.
Fairmount Minerals is in the process of renovating a building in Chester Township to become its international headquarters.
Dave Crandall, Fairmount vice president and general counsel, confirmed last week the company known for mining sand on its property on Ravenna Road in Munson Township, hopes to move into the building at 8844 Mayfield Road by late February or early March.
Currently, the offices for the headquarters of the corporation are located on Ravenna Road near its Black Lab facility.
Fairmount also opened a sand coating facility in Newbury Township several years ago.
As demand for its product has grown, room to manage the global operation has gotten crowded, Crandall said.
“We are out of space,” he said. “The building on (state Route) 44 has been expanded so many times.”
About 11,000 square feet of the Chester building is being redesigned to accommodate roughly 30 employees, Crandall said, adding the space will include a conference room and board rooms as well.
Some employees will remain in Munson and some will move to Chester, Crandall said.
With more space, management may be doing some hiring, he added.
Fairmount’s contractor, Deming Construction Enterprises, applied for a permit to renovate the building in September and no variances were needed, said Chester Zoning Inspector Steve Averill.
He estimated the space could accommodate as many as 60 employees and he understood there would be some research and development at the Chester facility.
Chester Township Trustee Mike Joyce is looking forward to having the headquarters in the township.
“I’m very, very pleased Fairmount Minerals chose to come to Chester,” he said. “They are a great asset.”
The building, which includes another 5,000 square feet, sits on about 38 acres and is owned by GBC Real Estate Partnership, according to the Geauga County auditor’s website.
Crandall said Fairmount has been looking for the right location for its headquarters for quite a while and was determined to find something capable of handling some growth in Geauga County.
“It’s very important to management that we remain in Geauga County. The company is very tied to Geauga County,” he said, adding the location provides easy access to the airport and the eastern suburbs of Cleveland.
The county has been very supportive of Fairmount, which has, in turn, been generous in its support of local communities, providing grants to fire departments and townships where it has facilities.
The renovation of the Chester facility is likely to cost about $750,000 and Fairmount plans to continue leasing most of the building, Crandall said.
According to its website, www.fairmountminerals.com, Fairmount serves the oil and gas, water, foundry, glass, sports, recreation and building industries.
It distributes to North America, Europe and Asia and is one of the largest producers of industrial sand in North America.
Worldwide, Fairmount has about 800 employees and in 2011, the corporation produced and shipped about six million tons of sand and value-added sand products.
It has nine mining and processing plants and nine manufacturing and coating facilities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Denmark and China.
