A local automotive equipment distributor has received a tax abatement to expand its warehouse in the Woodside Industrial Park.
TechTop Realty LLC, which leases the 55,000-square-foot warehouse to LHP Technologies, plans to spend $2 million to add 60,000 square feet of space.
It received an abatement Tuesday night from the Columbus City Council for additional taxes that come about as a result of the investment.
Once the warehouse is complete, the company will see gradual increases in its tax bills during the next 10 years, rather than paying taxes on the improvements immediately. The company also received an abatement in 2008.
Ryan Hou, CEO of both companies, said the expansion is necessary because the existing warehouse is full, mostly with products from all sections of the automotive industry waiting to be distributed to area customers.
It also will mean adding at least two jobs, a conservative estimate for the additional hands needed to work in the larger space, by August 2016, he said. Those jobs will bring the total number of workers at LHP Technologies to 12.
Mayor Kristen Brown and city council members congratulated Hou and LHP Technologies general manager Steve Gilley on the growth and thanked them for providing more local jobs.
Even though LHP Technologies is small, it is growing, and the expanded facility will enable the company to attract more customers and partners to the city and to the state, Hou said.
It’s also part of a greater family of companies, including LHP Software and LHP Solutions, both at 305 Franklin St., headquartered at LHP Corp., at 1888 Poshard Drive near the city’s municipal airport. Overall, the companies employ upward of 200 employees, according to the Columbus Economic Development Board.
A result of the first Chinese investment in Columbus, the company’s original commitment and expansion demonstrate the importance of the Columbus Economic Development Board’s annual delegations to Asia, Hou said. He and his wife, Jean, a former Cummins Inc. executive, regularly join the board on those trips.
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LHP Technologies LLC warehouses and distributes automotive equipment for and to various local and regional manufacturers. Organized in 2006, it and TechTop LHP Realty are both at 6889 S. International Drive in the Woodside Industrial Park.
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