City eyes incentive to keep firm here

The City Council today will consider an incentive agreement designed to keep aerospace parts company Mayday Manufacturing from leaving Denton as part of a planned expansion.

Mayday, which operates with sister company Hi-Tech Metal Finishing inside a plant at 1500 Interstate 35W, is looking to expand and is considering buying and renovating a vacant building at 3100 Jim Christal Road in Denton, according to a report prepared for the council.

At the same time, a neighboring city is courting the company and has offered incentives to leave Denton, said Linda Ratliff, the city’s economic development director.

In response, the Denton Economic Development Partnership Board is proposing a grant to encourage the company to relocate to the Jim Christal Road site. The grant would be worth about $388,000 over 10 years, which equals 75 percent of the increased tax revenues the city expects to receive on the building and business personal property during that time.

The council will consider the grant during its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 215 E. McKinney St.

The vote could affect the company’s decision, said Randy Kempf, Mayday’s chief executive officer.

“We’re planning on spending a significant amount of money” to expand, Kempf said. “We’d like to stay in the Denton area, and that amount of funding [in the proposed Denton grant] would help.”

Kempf declined to reveal other locations company officials were considering but said they hoped to make a decision within a month.

Ratliff also declined to identify the other city courting the company.

“[Mayday officials] did tell me they are being offered some very inexpensive land and that the [unidentified] city would extend the utilities and give them a healthy abatement or incentive,” Ratliff said. “The one that we have keeps them in Denton if the building ends up working out for them. They still have issues to work out before they close.”

To receive the grant money, the company would have to invest at least $3 million in improvements to the building and site at Jim Christal Road after buying it. City officials expect the company to invest more than $8.5 million in the project, including about $5.5 million in new equipment and other property over the next five years.

If Mayday leaves Denton, the city would lose about 250 existing jobs and 50 expected new jobs from the expansion, along with the company’s $11 million payroll and nearly $578,000 in property tax payments over the next decade, Ratliff said.

Denton would also lose a growing business in aviation, one of its targeted industries, she said.

Mayday’s history dates to 1966, when the late Jim Nelson founded it in the garage of a North Dallas home. The company expanded to Denton in 1998 after years of operation in the Lewisville area and is among the city’s largest private employers.

In 2009, the Nelson family sold Mayday and Hi-Tech Metal to Piqua, Ohio-based Tailwind Technologies Inc.

Also Tuesday, the council is expected to hold a public hearing and vote on the city’s bicycle and pedestrian accommodation plan and vote to create an economic development district around a proposed new combined heat and power plant near Denton Airport.

For the full agenda, visit www.cityofdenton.com.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com .