Protomet Corporation on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016, announced a $30 million, 200-job expansion, but the landlocked company could move to another county —or even another state. Pictured above is Protomet production associate Walt Weaver. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 11:35 a.m. Feb. 3.
Protomet Corporation on Tuesday announced a $30 million, 200-job expansion, but the landlocked company could move to another county —or even another state.
Protomet is now located in the Bethel Valley Industrial Park in south Oak Ridge.
The company hopes to break ground on the 100,000-square-foot expansion in June and plans to add 200 new jobs during the next five years. Protomet now has 70 workers in a 40,000-square-foot building on eight acres, so the company would more than triple in size.
Besides staying put, Protomet is also looking at sites in Roane County (the Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge), Loudon and Monroe counties, and South Carolina. The company is looking at some tracts of land outside Anderson County that are more than 25 acres. Protomet needs about 25-30 acres for the expansion, and right now, it doesn’t have it. [Read more…]
