252 layoffs as Pompano plant closes

Property that’s home to Pre-Cast Specialties is sold

POMPANO BEACH – Pre-Cast Specialties, a Pompano Beach-based concrete fabricator, is eliminating 252 jobs following the sale of its plant location, according to a notice filed with the state Department of Economic Opportunity.

The positions will be permanently phased out between Dec. 20 and Jan. 31. Dean Locke, Pre-Cast’s president and CEO, said in a letter to the department that the facility is being closed “due to a sale of the property.”

Eliminated positions include 221 yard laborers, 10 management staff and 21 office administrative employees, the letter said.

The plant is located on 46 acres at 1380 NE 48th St., northeast of the intersection of West Sample Road and North Dixie Highway.

According to its website, Pre-Cast Specialties manufactures precast and prestressed concrete products, including beams, columns, panels, stairs, landings, light poles, pole bases, manhole covers, electric vaults and median barriers.

Pre-Cast Specialties bought the site in 1993 from a Tampa company called Southern Prestressed Inc. A 23,000 square-foot building on the property was built in 1974, the property record shows. Pre-Cast Specialties was incorporated in 1971 and in 2015 changed its legal name to Cianelli Group Holding Inc.

The Broward County Property Appraiser’s website shows the site has changed hands twice in 2017.

On Jan. 24, Cianelli sold it to an entity called PCS Acquisition LLC of Auburn Hills, Michigan, for $15 million. Then on June 27, PCS Acquisition sold it to IPT Dixieland Highway Industrial Park DC LLC of Denver, for $21.8 million.

Pre-Cast officials did not immediately respond to requests by email and phone to provide more information about the company’s future.

In November 2016, the company received zoning approval from the city of Fort Pierce to build a concrete manufacturing plant on 75 acres of a former citrus grove west of Fort Pierce Central High School, according to the news website TCPalm.com.

The company planned to add 300 jobs at an average annual wage of $41,250, the website reported.