Renovations to a former pharmaceutical plant will begin as Mayday Manufacturing Inc. prepares to relocate to 3100 Jim Christal Road in Denton.
In April, the aerospace parts company announced the purchase of the 80,000-square-foot building.
“We are doing a lot of remodeling to turn it from a warehouse to our use as a manufacturing facility,” said Randy Kempf, CEO of Mayday Holdings LLC, which includes Mayday Manufacturing and its sister company, Hi-Tech Metal Finish.
The remodeling will include new plating lines and waste treatment facilities for Hi-Tech.
The building once housed Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals Inc.
“We received our permits this week to start demolition of the interior office area and some labs that are inside the warehouse,” Kempf said.
Renovations, at a cost of $8 million, include adding an estimated 12,000 square feet of office area in front of the building to be used for employee meetings, a cafeteria and a courtyard for dining, Kempf said.
“That includes a plating line to replace the one we have here at our current location,” he said.
Kempf would not disclose the purchase price of the building other than to say that both the buyer and the seller were pleased with the terms.
The building has a 2012 preliminary market value of $2.5 million, according to Denton Central Appraisal District records.
In February, the Denton Economic Development Partnership Board proposed a grant to encourage Mayday to relocate to Jim Christal Road instead of going to a nearby city. The grant was worth about $388,000, which equals 75 percent of the increased tax revenues on the building and business property for a 10-year term. The company had looked at other sites before deciding to remain in Denton.
“They are an existing company and they needed to expand, and they could not expand at their existing facility [1500 Interstate 35W],” said Karen Dickson, vice president of economic development for the Denton Chamber of Commerce..
Dickson said business retention is part of the economic partnership board’s work.
“It is an essential part of the economic development. We want our businesses to stay here and grow here,” she said. “If they would have left, we would have lost the company, the tax base and all that would have gone to Pilot Point.”
Before Mayday acquired the building, it had been empty for five years, Kempf said.
Renovations are expected to be finished by the first quarter of 2013. Mayday, which employs 250 workers, is still hiring machinists, Kempf said. The company is expected to double in size by 2016.
“Soon after that we will start moving in an orderly migration so we can move equipment a bit at a time,” Kempf said. “We expect not to lose downtime or work time.”
Additionally, the company will adjust its production schedule for each planned move to trigger “build ahead” as well as arrange for earlier raw material deliveries, according to a news release.
Last month, the Economic Development Partnership Board recognized Mayday during the mayor and council breakfast for its investment in Denton and in community partnerships.
“We were proud to accept that,” Kempf said, citing the company’s work with the Denton school district, United Way of Denton County and becoming a certified state veteran training facility.
Mayday was founded in 1966 by the late Jim Nelson in Dallas. The company expanded to Denton in 1998 after years of operation in the Lewisville area. In 2009, the Nelson family sold the company to Piqua, Ohio-based Tailwind Technologies Inc.
KARINA RAMÍREZ can be reached at 940-566-6878. Her email address is kramirez@dentonrc.com .
