Australian steel building-products maker SBS International has chosen East Windsor for its first North American production plant that will employ about 150 when it launches next spring, brokers say.
SBS’ realty affiliate recently paid $4.75 million for Connecticut solar-panel maker STR Holding’s revamped manufacturing facility at 18 Craftsman Road, Cushman & Wakefield buyer’s broker Tim D’Addabbo said Thursday. Colliers International’s Phil Gagnon was STR’s broker.
Officials for SBS and its parent, The Weeks Group, and STR couldn’t be immediately reached Thursday.
According to D’Addabbo, SBS – shorthand for Steel Building Systems — will occupy most of the building’s 279,000 square feet on 40 acres to produce its Supaloc brand steel-framing for houses, buildings and other structures.
SBS officials looked at some 20 available production plants across Connecticut, D’Addabbo said. Although the STR facility bought three years earlier for $4.9 million was larger than what SBS sought, the buyer decided STR’s reported $10 million spent for a new roof, electrical system and other upgrades made it a better value.
“We think we got a building that can work for us without a significant amount of [extra] money,’’ he said.
STR is working on a short-term lease with SBS, D’Addabbo said, to stay in East Windsor long enough for improvements to be completed at STR’s headquarters facility at 1699 King St. in Enfield.
STR purchased the property known in the community and among realty brokers as “the mushroom factory” in 2011, when sales in its solar division were doubling quarterly for more than a year. The plan was to consolidate all of its U.S. operations into one location while ramping up its foreign production in Europe, Malaysia, and China.
However, once the solar sales market slowed considerably and the company lost its top customer in January 2013, STR made the decision to close the East Windsor facility and cease its expansion plans.
STR now will manufacture its protective solar encapsulants at a China facility, as part of a deal reached with new majority owner Zhenfa Energy Group, which purchased 51 percent of the company for $22 million in August. STR remains headquartered in Enfield.