| Lincoln Electric will spend $40 million to renovate its facility in Euclid, adding 200 jobs over three years and bringing a company here from Baltimore.
Euclid, Cuyahoga County and the state will assist Lincoln with a package of tax credits, loans and cash payments - if the company retains the new jobs along with its current work force for 18 years.
Gov. John Kasich, and JobsOhio President Mark Kvamme spent about two hours at Lincoln's headquarters Wednesday touring facilities and announcing the state assistance in a program on the plant floor.
Lincoln already employees about 2,200 people in Northeast Ohio, with its headquarters, research and development labs and large manufacturing plant in Euclid and a second factory in Mentor. The company operates 42 factories, including plants in 18 other nations, and employs more than 10,000.
In the new plant expansion, Lincoln plans to renovate part of its Euclid works to absorb and expand the Techalloy Co., a 50-employee business it bought for $37.9 million in summer 2010.
Techalloy manufacturers nickel-based alloy welding materials, which are in high demand by the gas and oil industry, particularly in deep-sea operations. Lincoln's history and expertise has been in iron-based welding materials.
The governmental assistance includes:
•A state cut in commercial activity taxes over 15 years, totaling $10 million. The annual credit will be $1 million in the first year and $600,000 in subsequent years - as long as Lincoln holds up its end of the bargain with the $40 million investment and creation of jobs within three years.
•Three $1 million loans from the county's Economic Development Fund, which will be partly forgivable if Lincoln does what it says it will do. The first $1 million loan is 85 percent forgivable, while the second and third loans are 35 percent forgivable, the company said.
• Euclid this week approved a five-year incentive grant of $250,000, which the city will pay annually in $50,000 installments over five years, beginning in 2013. The payments are not tax dollars, the company said. Again, the city will not make the payments unless Lincoln invests its own $40 million to create the new jobs.
Noting a huge sign, Welcome to the Welding Capital of the World, Kasich declared: "Manufacturing is important. And manufacturing is coming back." Read Full Article
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