Metal manufacturer TechPrecision Corp. has purchased a Westminster manufacturing facility, which houses its subsidiary Ranor.
TechPrecision, which makes large-scale, high-precision machined metal fabrications with customers in the alternative energy, medical, nuclear, defense and aerospace industries, bought the facility on Bella Drive from WM Realty Management LLC, an entity controlled by one of TechPrecision’s directors, Andrew Levy.
Prior to the sale, the company had leased the purchased property from WM Realty. Ranor paid WM Realty $4.3 million for the property, which includes a 125,000-square-foot manufacturing facility that serves as Ranor’s primary operating location.
TechPrecision expects savings from the elimination of the WM Realty lease agreement to generate $200,000 in cash flow improvement, according to a statement.
On Dec. 30, Ranor received $6.2 million in tax exempt bond financing through the Massachusetts Development Finance Authority to purchase the property and complete an 18,000-square-foot facility expansion in calendar year 2011. Additionally, the bond funding will also be used to finance one of the largest CNC (Computer Numeric Control) horizontal gantry mills in North America, which Ranor requires for production of new orders and to more aggressively participate in its nuclear, defense and medical businesses.
The total project (including purchase of property, future facility expansion and the gantry mill) is approximately $7.3 million and is expected to create up to 30 additional highly skilled jobs. The interest rate on the tax exempt bonds has been fixed at an average rate of 4 percent, according to a statement.
"We want to thank Congressman Olver and the Massachusetts Development Finance Authority for the quick access to loan capital, which was implemented by the Federal government last fall and allocated to states to drive economic growth for small businesses and create new jobs," said James Molinaro, chief executive officer of TechPrecision Corp. "We are excited about our facility expansion and the additional revenue capacity this will enable us to achieve. We know that the new gantry mill will allow us to process projects 35 percent faster than our existing tool sets."
