By David Benda, Record Searchlight, December 2016
CaptiveAire, an East Coast manufacturer that builds kitchen ventilation products, wants to expand in Redding.
The company’s plans are expected to grow its workforce in Redding, which currently stands at approximately 125 people.
The company wants to build a 34,336-square-foot warehouse and office building on two parcels across the street from its plant on Lockheed Drive in the Redding Airport Business Park.
The new facility “will be a mix of mostly storage and we are adding some office space to house our engineers and things like that,” said Brandon Hafner, who’s in charge of construction for the company.
If the city approves the site development permit, the expansion is expected to open in July.
“There will be a short and long-term impact of jobs but I can’t say how many at this point,” Hafner said.
This fall, CaptiveAire purchased a 1.5-acre lot on Thunderbird Drive for $150,000 from the city. The company also bought an adjoining 2-acre lot from a private owner for about the same price.
CaptiveAire opened in Redding in 2006. The company has doubled its manufacturing facilities from three to six since it arrived in the North State. Its other locations are in Youngsville, North Carolina; Muskogee, Oklahoma; West Union, Iowa; Bedford, Pennsylvania; and Groveland, Florida.
Hafner said the economy has had an impact on the company’s growth.
“But I can’t say exactly how we’re growing and why for strategic reasons, but the economy has played a big part in that,” Hafner said.
CaptiveAire builds kitchen ventilation products for restaurants and public-sector uses, like school kitchens. The company also builds air-conditioning systems and heater and duct parts.
Sharrah Dunlap Sawyer of Redding is the design engineer for CaptiveAire’s expansion.