New manufacturing plant in Slidell received $765,000 in state incentives
The state of Louisiana offered $765,000 in incentives to bring a new manufacturing plant to the Textron facility in Slidell, St. Tammany Parish economic development officials said.
The Slidell City Council last month approved a conditional use permit for the company, Advanced Sinter Metal Technologies, to set up in a portion of the old Textron site off Front Street. The company, known as ASMT, manufactures components for electronic equipment using a process called sintering, in which small metal particles are formed into shapes using intense heat.
The company is leasing a 26,000-square-foot section of the Textron site from the Goldsmith family, Slidell officials have said.
ASMT is based in Turkey. This will mark its first location in North America and become its U.S. headquarters, economic development officials said. It will produce 15 jobs initially, but Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer and Chris Masingill, head of the economic development agency St. Tammany Corp., both expect that total to grow in the near future.
Masingill pointed to state economic development projections showing as many as 43 jobs in the coming years.
Masingill said St. Tammany Corp. (formerly the St. Tammany Economic Development District) got involved in the process when the company’s initial landing spot in New Orleans fell through. After that, Masingill said Ashley Llewellyn, his agency’s deputy director – economic development, worked full-time the past two months on finding a St. Tammany location for the company.
Masingill said the agency worked closely with Greater New Orleans Inc. and Louisiana Economic Development on the project, which came together quickly for St. Tammany.
“It was literally just a matter of weeks,’’ Masingill said.
The state incentives include $250,000 under the Economic Development Award program and $515,00 for the Quality Jobs program. St. Tammany Corp. also committed $25,000, Masingill said.
ASMT’s initial payroll will be more than $800,000 and the company’s total capital investment will be $5 million by the end of 2019, St. Tammany Corp. said in a news release.
Masingill said landing ASMT is big for the parish and could be a catalyst for additional companies.
Cromer agreed.
“Anything that creates jobs we think is huge,’’ he said. “They’ll get established and maybe kind of open the door. They’re (ASMT) really excited about the opportunities here.’’
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