Date: Fri 27-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Neumade-EDC-factory

Full Text:

Plans For Peck's Lane Factory Filed With The Town

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

An industrial firm has filed site plans with the Newtown Planning and Zoning

Commission for a 60,000-square-foot factory on Peck's Lane.

The commission is scheduled to review the plans submitted by Neumade Products

Corporation on October 3. The session is slated for 7:30 pm, at Newtown Middle

School auditorium, 11 Queen Street.

Neumade wants to build a factory on a 10-acre parcel in a M-2 Zone on the west

side of Pecks Lane. The land lies across Peck's Lane from the Sorvall factory

which formerly housed DuPont Medical Products, Inc.

Neumade makes equipment for the audio-visual, television, photographic, and

motion picture industries.

Johnson and Michaelson, Architects, of Branford designed the project. McChord

Engineering Associates, Inc, of Wilton is doing the engineering work. A.

Secondino and Son, Inc, of Branford, the applicant for the work, is the

general building contractor. The property owner is Rojo Enterprises, a limited

liability corporation, of Norwalk. Ronald Jones, the president of Rojo, also

is chief executive officer of Neumade.

The factory would be served by United Water's public water supply system. An

on-site septic system would provide wastewater disposal.

Some 63 on-site parking spaces and 7 loading spaces would be provided. Plans

indicate the potential for an additional 18 parking spaces.

In his plan, the applicant states the project would have no effect on area

property values.

Neumade is an 80-year-old firm that plans to consolidate three of its

operations at the Newtown site. Its Buffalo, NY, and Cedar Knolls, NJ,

factories and its Norwalk sales office will be consolidated here under the

plan.

Neumade sells its products worldwide, with 20 percent of its products sold to

international markets.

Elizabeth Stocker, the town's community development director, said the planned

factory will create about 45 new jobs in Newtown. The firm uses sheet metal to

build housings for professional motion picture projectors used in theaters. It

also builds film handling equipment, and manufactures microfilm equipment,

lighting controls and film storage equipment, among other media products.

Its products are sold to the entertainment industry, the government, hospitals

and museums.

Ms Stocker explained that Neumade responded to an advertisement placed by the

Economic Development Commission (EDC) in a commercial/industrial real estate

publication. She termed the company's interest in Newtown as a site "a direct

result of the (EDC) marketing program."

Ms Stocker said that after researching the company, she approached it about

moving their operations here. She noted that Neumade also was considering

other sites in Newtown and in other states.

The estimated value of the factory construction project is $3.5 million, she

said.

After approvals for the project are received, the firm is expected to move

quickly to build the 60,000-square-foot factory, she said.

A similar building for the site had been approved by the town for another firm

in the past, but the building was never constructed.

"The potential for growth is definitely there," Ms Stocker said of possible

Neumade factory expansion. Neumade was pleased with Newtown and believes it

will be able to find people to fill the new jobs here, she said.

Between the Neumade project and the Danbury Square Box Company, which plans to

build a new factory on Barnabas Road in Hawleyville, Newtown will be getting

about $5 million of new economic development, she said.

"We're moving ahead. I'm very pleased," said the development director. "It's

an excellent project for the town. I'm very happy about this."