PAS announces $4 million facility expansion

PAS Technologies in Hillsboro announced Wednesday that it is in the midst of a $4 million facilities expansion project that will allow the manufacturing facility to grow with business demand and bring in the potential for future jobs. 

Dan Boggs, general manager of the PAS facility in Hillsboro, met Wednesday with members of the media, Highland County Commissioners Shane Wilkin and Tom Horst, Highland County Chamber of Commerce President Katy Farber, Kevin Hoggatt of Sen. Rob Portman's office and Hillsboro Mayor Drew Hastings. 

PAS is a a global leader in the manufacturing and repair of aviation propulsion components and surface enhancement technologies.

Boggs said the company is always working toward "continuous improvement and growth. The speed PAS is growing has changed drastically, on the good side. A lot of good things are going on. Our customer base is growing."

Of seven major projects going on in 2013, he said, five of them are going to be going to Hillsboro, with the remaining two projects going to the facilities in Kansas City and Ireland. 

"There is absolutely a feeling of growth right now for PAS," Boggs said. "In the 30 years I have been in the business, I have not seen the growth that I have seen in the last year." 

As companies utilize the parts and components PAS repairs and manufactures - such as GE, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney - Boggs said they had to look at their three- and five-year plans for growth to keep up with the speed in which the market is growing. 

A 30,000-foot facility expansion is in the beginning stages of construction at the local on Hobart Drive in the Hillsboro Industrial Park. Wilkin said that in December, PAS reached an agreement to lease the property from the Highland County Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) for five years. If PAS is able to hit benchmarks in employment numbers, according to Wilkin, the company will be able to purchase the property "essentially for a dollar." The lease was made possible through a Rapid Outreach Grant through the Governor's Office of Appalachia.

After the facility construction is completed, $10-15 million in equipment will be installed.

This time last year, Boggs said PAS had 86 employees. Now, they have 124 employees, with plans for additional hires.

"The vision we have is that we could be adding 100 or so in the next year to 18 months," Boggs said. 

Construction is scheduled to begin as early as next week, Boggs said. Cincinnati Commercial Contracting will be working on the project, with the understanding that they will contract with local company as much as possible. As the current facility has outgrown its transformer, on Friday the plant will shut down for electrical lines to be run and so a new transformer can be installed. 

"It will be as close to complete by the end of this year as possible," Boggs said. 

Even as this expansion project is just beginning, Boggs said the facility will be built with an eye toward the future. If additional equipment is needed in coming years and a larger facility is required, they will be able to just open a wall and expand from there. 

Boggs said that their ability to grow and keep up with the demands in the field has been in part because of the good working relationship they have with the Highland County Commissioners, City of Hillsboro and officials at the state and federal levels. 

Farber said, "I'll be the one to say it. I am happy." 

Hastings said, "I'm excited." 

"I think we all are," Horst said. 

Hastings, who had to leave the meeting early, said, "I have to go try to make some good news for myself. Hopefully, it will be in support of this (PAS announcement). This is the best news we've had in a very long time. (With his current project) I am trying to make Hillsboro even more desirable. I want to make people want to flock here."

PAS is already working with The Ohio State University to hire students coming out of specified engineering programs, and they are in talks with Great Oaks and Southern State Community Colleges on developing curriculums and programming so that when the jobs become available, there is a trained workforce. 

"(Last year) We hadn't planned on building for another three years," Boggs said. "But we weren't nine months into this before we'd hired engineers (to begin the building process)."

Wilkin said that he began working with the company in 2009 to try to do, on the county and state level, whatever they could in order to bring more jobs to Hillsboro. 

"This has morphed into so much more than what we first talked about," Wilkin said. "At the city, federal and state levels, it's all about jobs. We've been working on this since 2009, now it's 2012. It doesn't happen overnight. But this shows it can happen."

Wilkin praised the work of Farber, Ohio 86th District Representative Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville), former 17th District Sen. Dave Daniels, current 17th District Sen. Bob Peterson and Sen. Rob Portman. 

"At the end of the day, the long pole in the tent, what makes this work, is people," Boggs said.