The Jonesboro site where Nordex USA Inc. made wind turbines will be soon be the location of a TrinityRail Maintenance Services Inc. facility that will provide rail-car maintenance and services, Dallas-based TrinityRail said Thursday.
Construction and modifications on the building will begin later this year, and when the project is finished in 2015, TrinityRail will employ up to 350 at the facility, company spokesman Jack Todd said.
Mark Young, president and chief executive officer of the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the sale of the property was finalized Thursday.
TrinityRail is a unit of TrinityRail Group LLC and subsidiary of Trinity Industries Inc., which provides industrial products and services ranging from rail cars, storage containers, windmill towers and barges.
TrinityRail is negotiating an incentive agreement with the state, said Scott Hardin, spokesman for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. He said an agreement is expected in few days.
"We welcome TrinityRail Maintenance Services to Jonesboro, and we are excited for the significant investment the company is making in Northeast Arkansas," Gov. Mike Beebe said in a statement. "This shows again that when Arkansas cities have the right workforce and facilities, new companies will continue to bring good-paying jobs here."
TrinityRail will move into Nordex USA's former $40 million wind-turbine facility. Nordex announced last year that it was ending production in Jonesboro and shifting operations to Germany, where its parent company, Nordex SE, has its headquarters.
Nordex said it would lay off about 40 employees when it announced the move.
The company said a drop in demand for wind turbines -- the result of uncertainty about whether Congress would extend a federal production tax credit -- led it to move its operations to Germany. Nordex said the move to Germany would also give it more flexibility to respond to the global market.
Nordex had plans to create about 700 jobs when it began production in Jonesboro in 2010, but only employed about 100. There were about 50 employees at Nordex last summer, before the layoffs.
A spokesman for Nordex could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.
Nordex still provides maintenance and other support for its operations in Jonesboro, Young said.
Trinity Industries operates a fleet of leased rail cars, according to its website. In May, Trinity Industries Leasing Co. completed a $338 million sale of leased rail cars to TRIP Rail Holdings. Since May 2013, Trinity Leasing has sold rail cars worth about $1.1 billion, according to a news release.
Business on 06/06/2014