FRANKLIN — A Franklin-based orthodontics manufacturer will get about $2 million in state economic development funds on top of tax incentives provided by the city.
G and H Orthodontics, Inc., formerly known as G and H Wire, will receive the state incentives as long as it meets its job creation goals. The company earlier this year received nearly $700,000 in incentives from Franklin to establish a new headquarters at 40 Linville Way. With the move, the company plans to more than double its workforce by 2023, according to state documents.
The company, which has been in Franklin since 1975, has grown into one of the leading suppliers of orthodontics products worldwide. Today, the company manufactures components for braces including bands, brackets, tubes and wires.
Earlier this year, the company considered leaving the city and taking 116 local jobs with it. Now, with the city and state incentives on the table, the company plans to stay, create 154 new jobs and invest nearly $5 million in a new headquarters.
In February, Franklin officials passed incentive packages to facilitate the company’s expansion and retain local jobs. More recently, the state sweetened the deal with additional incentives.
The city pulled out all the stops to keep the company in Franklin, Mayor Steve Barnett said earlier this year. The company originally wanted to expand at its current location, 2165 Earlywood Drive, but was notified that its lease was up, he said.
On its abatement application, the company said operating costs and taxes are a major part of their decision, and the incentives would be a deciding factor.
Staying in Franklin was important, said John Voskuil, G and H CEO.
“This location decision was critical to continuing G and H’s success,” Voskuil said in a statement. “After evaluating multiple options, we chose to relocate and expand a short distance from our existing facility.”
The company will move by the end of the year to the Linville Way shell building, which Westfield-based Patch Development plans to spend $3.8 million to build to the company’s needs and specifications, according to city documents. G and H will also invest $1.16 million in equipment, which will create 154 jobs by 2023, a couple dozen more jobs than were announced initially.
The $2.8 million shell building was a public-private partnership between the city’s redevelopment commission, Runnebohm Construction and GM Development. Built as a starting point for businesses wishing to locate in Franklin, the investment paid off, Barnett said.
G and H now employs 134; it had employed 116 in February, city and state documents show. The company will top out at about 288 employees once it is fully staffed in 2023, according to state documents.
The job total reported to the state is higher than an estimate the company gave the city, which was 250 jobs.
Employees currently make about $23 an hour, on average, and the new jobs will pay about $25 an hour, on average, city documents show.
The company is expected to add 37 new jobs by the end of the year and has, so far, invested over $20,900 at the site, state documents show. Construction is already underway.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp., the state’s lead economic development agency, awarded the state incentives based on the company’s job creation goals.
The package includes a $1.8 million Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) Tax Credit, and $200,000 in Skills Enhancement Fund grants for employee job training.
City incentives included a $100,000 cash incentive from the Franklin Redevelopment Commission, and real and personal property tax abatements which will together save the company and developer $592,800.
The 10-year real property tax abatement will save Patch $508,000 in taxes, but the developer will still pay $631,000 in taxes during that time, according to city documents.
The 10-year personal property abatement for G and H comes with an alternative schedule, which allows the company to pay no taxes on its new equipment for the first two years, and just 5% the third year, city documents show. A standard schedule abatement usually only allows one tax-free year.
Under the alternative schedule, G and H will save $84,800, while paying $37,400 in taxes on the equipment. Much of the taxes will be paid near the end of the abatement period, as G and H would pay less than half of the taxes owed on the equipment until year eight.
State incentives are subject to the company meeting its goals stated in the agreement attached to the funds. The city’s tax abatements will also be reviewed for compliance annually.
G and H currently employs 151 workers, including 134 in Franklin.
— The Indianapolis Business Journal contributed to this report.
