An Omaha-based steel company is opening its first Colorado manufacturing plant, eventually creating 50 jobs in Aurora.
Drake-Williams Steel Inc. paid $3 million for a 52,000-square-foot building on 12 acres at 20400 E. 26th Ave.
“It’s a great thing to see a vacant facility purchased and filled by a company that’s going to add that many jobs,” said Bryan Blakely, vice president of the Aurora Economic Development Council. “They’re manufacturing jobs. We don’t see a lot of manufacturing these days.”
Drake-Williams expects to hire 20 employees in the first 18 months, growing to 50 in the next five years. The positions include welders, machine operators and material handlers.
“Start small, and grow from there,” said Jay Stewart, the company’s executive vice president. “Right now, the economy being what it is, we’re not in a big hurry to hire a bunch of people and get a lot of production going. We need the market to pick up a little bit. We’ll be up and running in two or three months.”
Drake-Williams provides fabricated structural steel, stair systems and miscellaneous fabricated steel, steel joist/deck and fabricated concrete- reinforcing steel for all types of building projects.
Its Colorado projects include St. Francis Medical Center in Colorado Springs, the Rio Grande cement plant in Pueblo and 1800 Larimer in downtown Denver. It’s also working on the Vestas campuses.
Frederick Ross Co. brokers Tyler Reed, Chris Nordling and Pete Wycoff represented Drake-Williams in the deal.
Margaret Jackson: 303-954-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com
