Why Maize? Here's what drew a new $80

An 80-acre site within Maize Industrial Park "checked all the boxes" for a North Carolina-based manufacturer looking to build its eighth plastics plant in the Midwest, said Brad Muller, a spokesperson representing the company.

Announced last week, the $80-million project from Charlotte Pipe and Foundry Co. will be built near 119th Street West and 53rd North in Maize.

The company says it plans to create 50 new jobs over the next three years.

Muller said Maize had a number of draws for the manufacturer, which produces cast iron and plastic pipe and fittings, predominately for wholesale plumbing distributors.

"Maize is fast growing, it's pro-business, a well-educated workforce," he said. "We're conservative financially, culturally, politically conservative, and so we wanted someplace that kind of reflected our values and someplace where we can draw a workforce that's going to appreciate those family values."

The Charlotte Pipe project — as well as the recently announced Integra facility in Bel Aire and GAF Materials plant in Newton — demonstrate how smaller metro areas fit into economic development, including what those in the industry say is more land availability and increased access to infrastructure and other resources.

"We compete with regions all across this country that would love to have you, and the fact that we have you here is a huge win," Sedgwick County commissioner Jim Howell told Muller during a Wednesday meeting. "This doesn't happen by accident, we have to sell what makes us special."

Hutton is the general contractor for the plant, with construction anticipated to start in January and wrap up in early 2025.

For its Maize project, Charlotte Pipe secured a number of economic development incentives from state, county and local governments:

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Charlotte Pipe and Foundry was founded in 1901 and has plastic pipe manufacturing locations in Cameron, Texas; Muncy, Pa.; and Wildwood, Fla., as well as pipe and fitting production facilities in Monroe, N.C.; Huntsville, Ala.; and Cedar City, Utah.

In an interview with the WBJ, Muller said the Texas plant has "grown tremendously" in recent years.

"We needed another plant to serve the Midwest and the upper Midwest," he said. "... We need these plants to be closer to our customers."

Muller said Charlotte Pipe had looked at three or four sites in the region and "pretty quickly" landed on Maize.

The site is shovel-ready and surrounded by industrial activity, with access to railroad and highway, reliable electricity and a local workforce.

"We're a big electricity user," Muller said, adding that Charlotte Pipe worked with Evergy to lock in its electricity rate for five years to save the company $3 million.

Other site infrastructure was also key.

WATCO, which operates the Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad that runs along the north side of the Maize site, was also a partner.

"We'll bring in raw material via rail, and then we ship finished goods on flatbed trucks, so we need both," Muller said. "... So it kind of was a perfect site."

On Wednesday, the Sedgwick County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to receive a $1.5 million matching grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation to fund the construction of a new rail spur, as well as a new turn lane on 119th Street, to support the Charlotte Pipe project.

To match the grant, Sedgwick County will provide $233,242 and Maize will provide $21,250, with WATCO also pitching in funds, according to the agreement approved Wednesday.

"It's exciting where we're at today," said commissioner David Dennis, whose district includes the project. "We've got the electricity that you need, we've got the workforce here that you need, we'll have the transportation in place that you need. We're growing, and I am very pleased to welcome you."

The new rail spur will total nearly 3,000 feet of track, according to county documents. The company projects the arrival of about 500 railcars per year initially, and to double the railcars per year within five years. About 1,000 outbound trucks, meanwhile, are anticipated along 119th Street per year.

At the new Maize plant, Muller said Charlotte Pipe will import PVC resin from the Gulf of Mexico that is blown into silos, vacuumed, heated and then ultimately formed into pipes.

"We're growing and expanding," Muller said in an interview. "We also got into the irrigation business... We wanted to be able to expand that irrigation business so this plant will probably serve both — we'll make plumbing pipe and irrigation pipe."

Employment at the Maize plant will not require a college degree or advanced training, Muller said, adding that Charlotte Pipe plans to offer on-the-job training,

"They are not highly technical, but they are machinery, so it will require a little bit of technical training to operate those machines," Muller told the commission.

In order to receive the property tax abatement, Charlotte Pipe will be required to employ at least 20 full-time employees at an average wage of at least $39,000, according to the agreement approved by the Maize City Council on Monday.

"Our skilled workforce is eager to get to work and help Charlotte Pipe and Foundry solidify its 122 years in business by bringing quality piping to customers across the globe while diversifying the Maize economy," Maize mayor Patrick Stivers said in a news release last week. "The company's strong, family-oriented culture is a perfect fit in our community."

Muller said the company takes pride in the fact that it hasn't had a layoff in its plastics division since 1982, nor layoffs in the cast iron division since 1957.

"No one wrote it down, but we basically have a no-layoff policy, and we do that for a number of reasons," he said. "One, it's the right thing to do, and being privately held, we have the balance sheet to be able to do that, even in lean years. But also, it makes for a very loyal and well-trained workforce. We have generations of families that work at Charlotte Pipe."