Mid-Am Building Supply plans expansion

A building supply manufacturer is expanding its operations in Mt. Pleasant.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the Mt. Pleasant City Council signed off on the sale of three lots in the Crossroads Industrial Park to Mid-Am Building Supply.

“We’re excited about this project,” Chamber Executive Vice President Kristi Perry said. “Mid-Am Building Supply has been working with us for the past six months about expanding their footprint in Mt. Pleasant.”

Mid-Am Chief Financial Officer Jon Rakers said that the new facility, which will be at 2201 E. Bluegrass Road, will feature 121,000 square feet of production and warehouse space and an additional 10,000 square feet of office space.

The company’s current facility at 300 E. Harvey Place is approximately 121,000 square feet.

Rakers said that there will be more room for trucks to load and unload at the new facility.

One of the major changes will be the addition of automated door lines for both interior and exterior doors.

“Right now, our door shop crew of 11 build all their doors on tables,” Rakers said. “There’s not much automation to it. It’s going to change their world in a good way.”

He said that they plan to move quickly on the project.

“We’ve got a lot of planning to do right now, but we know what we want,” Rakers said. “It’s picking our general contractor, getting with the engineers and city building and zoning. Ideally, we’ll be moving dirt later this summer, hopefully no later than early fall.”

He added that there is a currently a window for them to order structural steel for the project.

“Hopefully, we can get our order for that in and get our foundation poured before winter hits and build through the winter, provided crews are willing to work through the winter,” he said. “I would hope by the end of 2022, we’d be in it for sure.

“It’s a lot of concrete and a lot of big open space on the inside. Once the shell is up, there’s not much more to be done.”

Mid-Am board Chairman Joe Knaebel said that the Mt. Pleasant facility currently employs 46 people and that the expansion is expected to add between eight and 14 new positions.

“Most of those will be in the production area where we’re fabricating our doors,” Knaebel said. “That’s where we see the greatest opportunity for growth.”

Mid-Am first came to Mt. Pleasant in 1984 when it opened an 18,750-square-foot facility. The facility has expanded four times since.

“We got a warm reception from the city of Mt. Pleasant at that time,” he said. “We’ve had good years together, and we’ve grown.

“Unfortunately, we’re landlocked where we are. If we want to grow the way we want to grow, we needed to do something.”

He said the company looked at other locations, both in Mt. Pleasant and in other cities, but ultimately decided to remain in Mt. Pleasant.

“We considered other places, but when we looked at the core group of employees that we’ve got here, we’ve got really good people here,” he said. “We’ve been able to grow with them.”