Under Construction - Industry building continues across county

September 13, 2013

Work continues on two industrial projects in Bartow County with completion dates scheduled for later this year.

On Cartersville's west end, Eco-Energy Holdings is constructing an ethanol distribution facility while Austrian-based steel giant voestalpine marked a construction milestone this week on the Stamptec Metal Forming Division plant at Highland 75.

voestalpine recently reached the halfway point in raising the walls for the company's facility at the Highland 75 industrial park off of Cass-White Road.  To meet customer demand, the Bartow plant expects to begin production later this summer with production testing to begin next month.

"voestalpine is coming along just fine, pending rain days, but they are anxious to get the building to a point they can put equipment in and start the testing process -- but things seem to be on track in that regard," said Executive Director of the Cartersville-Bartow County Department of Economic Development Melinda Lemmon.  "They raised the last of the panels this morning for the first half of the building."

In addition to facility construction, voestalpine also is gearing up for workforce development utilizing the Technical University System of Georgia's Quick Start program.  Quick Start provides customized workforce training for Georgia industries in areas of general labor, such as fork-lift operation, as well as the operation of proprietary equiment specific to each company.

"They are also working hard in regard to the training new hires would have to go through with Quickstart," Lemmon said.  "As soon as they are able to get equipment in place and get some hiring done, I think we'll hear more specific times for production."

Those interested in applyling for the more than 200 jobs to be created by voestalpine, can do so by contacting the Georgia Department of Labor Cartersville Career Center, 19 Felton Place, 770-387-3760.

In the Cartersville West Industrial Park, Eco-Energy Holdings is working on an ethanol unit train facility to serve customers throughout the Atlanta market.  Through an automated delivery system, the ethanol unit, with a storage capacity of 8.4 million gallons, will offer Eco-Energy customers 24/7 access to the distribution facility by CXS railway.  Up to 96 train cars will be able to access the ethanol unit at a time with the capability of dispensing more than 16.8 million gallons a month.

"We are excited about this addition to our ethanol unit train offering," said Eco-Energy CFO and CEO Gwaine Ton in a press release earlier this year.  "Atlanta is a growing market and this project reflects our continued investment in delivering optimal low-cost supply chain solutions to bio-fuel producers and end users.  We also intend to further develop the site to service other industrial related businesses seeking longer-term supply chain solutions."

Being a largely automated distribution facility, the ethanol unit will not employ large numbers of workers, but will introduce an emerging market to the local industrial makeup.

"We've enjoyed seeing construction progress at the sight and I believe they are still targeting a fall opening," Lemmon said.  "I think this facility is very important to the Atlanta market, especially in regard to the access to ethanol and the federal requirements associated with mixing percentages.  It's fairly unique in that regard and puts us in a strategic advantage for the Atlanta market to have a facility like this in the [Metropolitan Statistical Area]."