Emerson plans $73M expansion in Sidney

Port Authority approves capital lease agreement to further the project.

Emerson Climate Technology in Sidney is planning more than $73 million in expansion and construction work at its world headquarters in Sidney, according to Dayton-Montgomery County Port Authority officials and documents.

The Port Authority’s Board of Trustees voted Monday to approve a capital lease agreement with Emerson to further the project, which would involve an estimated

$40.6 millionof construction work in the second quarter of 2017 and an additional $33.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. “This is a capital project of

significant magnitude,” Jerry Brunswick, executive director of the Port Authority, told trustees. “We worked with the Dayton

Development Coalition and JobsOhio in putting this project together.”

Emerson has around 1,600 employees in Sidney, making heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and climate control equipment and parts in facilities about 40 minutes north of Dayton. The company also has a new $35 mil-

lion research center in Dayton on the University of Dayton campus.

Many of the company’s em p loyees commute to Emerson in Sidney from the Dayton area, Brent Schroeder, Emerson group pres- ident, told this news outlet in a recent interview.

Since the Port Authority is exempt from sales taxes, the financial arrangement would save Emerson sales tax costs on all materials pur- chased for construction in the project. Port Authority data shows Emerson would save an estimated nearly $2.4 million in the arrangement.

Under the agreement, the Port Authority would hold

title to each phase of the project. Emerson would pur- chase the project back from

the Port Authority at the end of the initial lease period. The capital lease would have a five-year term.

The project still depends on an array of state and local incentives, Brunswick said.

“This is a significant proj- ect for the region,” he said. “A ($73 million) investment is a real signal of a company’s commitment to the region.”

A spokeswoman for Emer- son offered no immediate

comment. A spokeswoman for the Dayton Development Coalition declined to comment.

The work planned would involve building some 97,000 square feet of engineering lab space inside an exist

ing facility in the first phase of the expansion, according to Port Authority doc- uments. Offices would be expanded by about 20,000 square feet, also in the first phase of work.

In the second phase of the project, 172,000 square feet of existing first-floor office and other space would be remodeled and rebuilt.

Brunswick said no new jobs are expected in the project.

St. Louis-based Emerson is a $22 billion company that designs and makes the inner electronics and control systems of everything from heating-ventilation-and-air-con- ditioning systems to kitchen appliances, such as refrigerators, stoves and more.

The company’s name may not appear on the outside of well-known central AC units, but quite often those units are controlled with technology from Emerson, which has 4,900 employees total in Ohio, including about 1,600 in Sidney.

About 35 Emerson employees work in the company’s Dayton research center — which is called “the Helix” — which received $5 mil

lion in Ohio Third Frontier incentives with additional local incentives. But the center, located at 40 W. Stewart St., is expected to create another 45 new jobs elsewhere in Ohio by 2019, company officials said.