GOSHEN — An Elkhart trailer maker hopes to more than double its workforce after it builds a new facility in Middlebury.
Elkhart County Council on Thursday approved a declaratory resolution in favor of economic benefits for Cross Trailers LLC, which plans to build a 112,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 11732 C.R. 4. The new manufacturing facility would be part of a $10 million investment and result in the hiring of dozens of new employees at an average wage of $28 an hour, according to Chris Steger, president of the Economic Development Corporation of Elkhart County.
A public hearing will be held ahead of a later vote on a confirmatory resolution.
Cross Trailers was formed in 2012 and now builds a line of specialized work trailers using a proprietary construction method, Steger said. Company President Dustin Miller said they now have 48 workers and hope to employ 120 after the new facility is up and running at full capacity.
Miller said going from a four-acre property to a facility on 25 acres would open a lot of possibilities.
The Middlebury location just east of C.R. 39 was used as a trailer storage lot by the former owner. The Elkhart County Board of Commissioners approved a zone map change for the property on Monday to allow Cross Trailers to build on it.
The land comes with certain environmental constraints due to the presence of wetlands.
“The site has almost five acres of existing wetland area along the west side of the site that was previously unmapped, but we suspected it was there,” Ben Stanley, a civil project engineer with Surveying and Mapping LLC, said Monday. “The owner agreed to let us have it delineated. So we are taking extreme steps to make sure that we are not impacting that wetland with any of our site plan development, and work very closely with some of our conservation guys as well, with the county.”
Miller told council Thursday that he’s familiar with the stricter approach they’ve taken to holding companies to the terms of their tax break agreements. He agreed that Cross Trailers shouldn’t expect to keep its benefits if it doesn’t grow and invest as promised.
“I was actually at last month’s council meeting and that was obvious. You guys had a lot of questions about how somebody was supposed to invest so much money or address the new jobs. And I think that makes sense. The reality of what we’re trying to do here is just to stay in the county.”
Miller said the reason they’re seeking benefits is to help the company stay in Elkhart County. They sold it last year to a Texas manufacturer, Load Trail LLC.
With the new owner’s investment, they’ve already increased their daily output from eight trailers a day to 11, and are now aiming for 12, he said.
“So they’ve already committed to investment in Cross. Some of the questions they asked us were, ‘OK, if we’re going to grow this thing, where do we go? Do we stay in Elkhart, do we go somewhere else?’” he said. “My goal with them is to try and keep this thing in Elkhart County because we build RVs in Elkhart County. This is where the people are, this is where the vendors are, the suppliers are, all that’s right here. I’d hate to see it move out of Elkhart County just because we can make it cheaper somewhere else.”
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