Hammond factory to open in 2012 : Plastic molding on sale

A long-delayed manufacturing operation in Hammond is set to begin operating at the end of the year, company officials say.

“We are anticipating starting manufacturing in the fourth quarter of 2012.” Lawrence Oertling, CEO of Intralox, a maker of plastic conveyor belts, told the Louisiana Commerce and Industry Board on Tuesday.

The board agreed to the company’s request to continue a property tax abatement, an economic development incentive granted three years ago.

The Industrial Tax Exemption program provides a five-year property tax exemption on equipment and other capital improvements made to a manufacturing site that becomes operational.

However, just as Intralox was preparing to open at the end of the 2008, the state and national economy slipped deeply into recession and the $22 million, 80,000-square-foot injection-molding facility never went online.

Intralox is based in Harahan and is a subsidiary of Laitram Corp., which has 1,600 employees, 1,000 of them in Louisiana. At full operation — with 100 injection mold machines — Intralox anticipates adding 200 new jobs, said Oertling.

“I think the idea is to give you guys as much break as possible,” remarked Ronnie Harris, a member of the C&I Board. “I think that we want to nurture the possibility of job growth. We understand recessions and that sort of thing.”

In other news, the C&I Board approved an estimated $20.1 million in incentives through salary rebates over 10 years and sales and use tax credits for four new Quality Jobs program applications.

Businesses anticipate adding 810 new jobs with $83.8 million in investment, according to Louisiana Department of Economic Development documents.

Seventeen business operations around the state applied to participate in LED’s Enterprise Zone incentive program, which can provide tax credits for new jobs created as well as sales and use tax rebates or investment tax credits. The projects approved Tuesday have an estimated $110.1 million in investment, creating possibly 468 new jobs and dispensing an estimated $2 million in local and state incentives.

Chemical plants lining the state’s petrochemical corridor were the bulk of the 46 applications to the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption program.

The plant improvements or expansions come to an estimated $555 million in capital costs and are expected to create 142 new jobs while receiving an estimated $87.3 million in tax relief.