KraftMaid Cabinetry Inc. on Wednesday confirmed it will build a $100 million facility in West Jordan that will open next year and employ as many as 1,300 people.
The Middlefield, Ohio, company, one of the nation's largest manufacturers of custom cabinets, will receive a $2.2 million grant from the state -- one of the largest grants ever pledged from Utah's Industrial Assistance Fund -- to build a new facility on 80 acres at 9900 S. 6210 West. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is set to announce the facility at a news conference this morning.
Economic developers working under former Govs. Mike Leavitt and Olene Walker spent more than two years to entice KraftMaid, a subsidiary of Taylor, Mich.-based Masco Corp., to build in Utah.
The plant will be KraftMaid's fourth. It already operates two plants in Middlefield and a third in Orwell, Ohio, that supply cabinets to retail giants such as Home Depot and Lowe's.
KraftMaid spokeswoman Kim Boos said the company, which at full employment will become one of Utah's largest private employers, selected the site in West Jordan for its access to ample labor, proximity to suppliers and its centralized location in the West.
The incentive grant Utah will provide also helped.
Under guidelines approved in October by the Utah Board of Business and Economic Development, the state agreed to provide $2,500 for each new employee who is paid 25 percent to 100 percent more than Salt Lake County's median wage of $24,800. The state will pay $4,000 per new employee paid more than twice the county median wage.
The company will not receive the $2.2 million in a single payment, IAF spokeswoman Tracie Cayford said. "They have to create the jobs before any disbursement will be made," she said, adding the state has agreed to pay the company $200,000 when it breaks ground.
Under IAF guidelines, the company most likely will receive the cash over a five-year period. In its application for the economic incentives, KraftMaid said it will take about five years to reach its projected employment.
Boos said hiring for the West Jordan facility, which is now being designed, will not begin until the end of this year or early next year.
Bill Martin of Commerce CRG, which brokered the sale of the 80 acres in West Jordan to KraftMaid, said projects the size of KraftMaid's are rare and involve numerous state and municipal entities.
"A lot of people came together to get this company here," he said.
