Travelers passing the Parkman Industrial Park on state Route 422 in Parkman Township can see owner Don Hofstetter has big plans.Construction of the building just…
Travelers passing the Parkman Industrial Park on state Route 422 in Parkman Township can see owner Don Hofstetter has big plans.
Construction of the building just yards from the main thoroughfare is close to completion and is just the first of several structures planned for the park in the next few years.
Hofstetter, who grew up on a farm in Montville Township, has been planning some of the expansion for years.
Montville Plastics Company, the anchor of the park, has been in production since the 1980s, he said. Once his thermoplastics extrusion operation outgrew his Montville garage, he bought the park, which includes Auntie’s Antiques retail mall, and set up shop there.
About the same time, he bought out Kessler Products of Youngstown and partnered up with Ironhorse Engineering Co., according to the Montville Plastics website.
A variety of contracts followed, leading Montville Plastics to produce, among other items, gaskets for the Biodome in Arizona and windshield gaskets for Hummers bound for Desert Storm front lines.
Fast forward to 2013, when he expanded his company’s design capability. Montville Plastic’s facility of more than 150,000 square feet in Parkman housed about 2,000 dies.
This year, Hofstetter started a complex in the 120-acre park that will eventually include an office building for the company to the west of the 30,000-square-foot structure now under construction.
When the building is complete, it will house Water Star’s new headquarters, since the company has outgrown its Newbury Township facility, Hofstetter said.
One key to the expansion is the new wastewater disposal plant about half a mile east of the park, he said.
The plant, owned and operated by Geauga County, was built about seven years ago, but lines to the industrial park were not installed.
Hofstetter said he has finally worked through the red tape and the time is right to connect to the wastewater treatment plant.
To do so, he will install the lines from the plant to the park so the newer structures are not dependent on septic systems.
“It will probably cost more than half a million dollars because (the line) will have to go under the river,” Hofstetter said. His plans have taken root in the last year or two as the environment for development has become more positive.
“The township, the county, the EPA — everyone’s been very cooperative. It’s refreshing to me,” he said.
So the next three years will see a flurry of activity, including construction of the office building and removal of the huge chicken coop.
Yes, the long, old building beside Montville Plastics, used for material storage, will be torn down and replaced with a new, larger structure for that purpose.
Once it is habitable, Hofstetter said he hopes to dispose of the dozens of trailers used for storage parked nearby.
“We want to make this our signature industrial building in the park,” he said. “Now everything’s starting to fall into place.”
He and his wife, Jean, own an additional 500 or more acres behind the park, he said.
Years ago, they had hoped to create a golf course community with $400,000 homes, but the golf course part of the dream has aged out, he said.
Demand for industrial space is growing in Geauga County and the park is ready to accommodate it.
The western-most building in Parkman Industrial Park, owned by CNC LLC, started off as a 30,000-square-foot plant, but business grew so fast, the company decided to expand it by another 50,000 square feet, said Parkman Township Zoning Inspector John Spelich.
The company produces hydraulic hose fittings in Garrettsville, but has outgrown its current location. When the Parkman plant opens, it will have about 125 employees, Spelich said.
Once the wastewater treatment plant lines have been run to the new buildings, Hofstetter said he plans to improve the access road to the various operations in the park.
