IBC Advanced Alloys this week received two tax breaks to facilitate an expansion of the company’s Franklin headquarters.
IBC plans to invest more than $5 million to build and outfit a 32,000-square-foot copper casting facility on its Franklin property north of downtown, 401 Arvin Drive.
IBC, also known as Non Ferrous Products, Inc., is a Franklin-based beryllium and copper advanced alloys manufacturer that serves a variety of industries such as defense, aerospace, automotive, telecommunications and precision manufacturing.
The Franklin facility is IBC’s corporate headquarters and the primary manufacturing plant for its copper alloys division, said Mark Wolma, president of IBC’s copper division. Employees manufacture and distribute a variety of copper alloys as castings and forgings, including beryllium copper, chrome copper and aluminum bronze, he said.
The Franklin City Council this week approved IBC’s requests for a 10-year real property tax abatement, and a seven-year personal property tax abatement.
With the abatements, IBC will pay about $556,000 in real property taxes, and save about $448,000 over the 10-year period, according to an estimate.
The company will pay about $59,000 in personal property taxes, and save about $81,000 over the 7-year period, the estimate says.
The expansion, set to start this spring, will expand its onsite copper casting capacity to better serve the facility’s forging and machine shop. The new building will be a connecting structure between the two buildings on IBC’s property, bringing the buildings under the same roof, he said.
The company plans to hire 25 new employees with wages ranging from $20.96 to $38.55 an hour, including benefits, according to city documents.
The new employees will be brought on over the course of about five years, and will eventually grow the Franklin site to 60 employees, documents show.
The average wage is more than $10 above the city’s average hourly wage of $19.60, said Dana Monson, the city’s community development specialist.
