DCOA approves assistance for Smith Pipe
October 11, 2011
DCOA will provide nearly $521K in funds
By Jaime Adame
Up to $521,790 in funding from the Development Corporation of Abilene will go to oil and gas business Smith Pipe as the company plans to add 31 new jobs through expansion of its oil tank manufacturing facilities.
"They have way more demand than they can meet right now, so they're looking at adding a 15,000-square-foot production facility and a 5,000-square-foot painting facility," said Richard Burdine, chief executive officer of the DCOA, which allocates the city's half-cent sales tax for economic development projects.
The funding — the second such assistance package approved this year for Smith Pipe — includes up to $313,000 in job creation incentives that would be paid out over three years, with the total dependent on the number of positions added. The company expects 23 of the positions to pay between $30,000 and $40,000 with health insurance, with six positions paying more.
Another $208,790 is tied to 10 percent of construction costs for the new buildings.
In May, the DCOA approved assistance of up to $1.16 million for Smith Pipe based on the company's expansion plans involving pipe-coating operations and the anticipated hiring of 44 new workers. Capital costs associated with that expansion were estimated to be $5.277 million.
