GALESBURG
A $2 million expansion project at Aluminum Castings Corp. will add 11,500 square feet to the sand mold aluminum casting foundry on South Street, as well as adding 16 to 26 new jobs over the next two years. The project was announced Monday afternoon by the city of Galesburg.
Gary Camarano, the city’s global strategies director, said Aluminum Castings employs 26 workers, meaning the size of the firm may double.
Aluminum Castings, which has produced sand mold aluminum castings here since 1964, is an affiliate of the Alcast Company.
“Aluminum Castings cast(s) several aluminum alloys in our aluminum casting process and our affiliation with Alcast allows us to offer customers a wider variety of aluminum castings options,” said Aluminum Castings President Bret Markum in a prepared release. “We currently produce 70,000 pounds (per) month at the facility and the expansion will allow us to double our production.”
Camarano said Aluminum Castings approached the city because there were a number of different owners of the land the firm needed to expand. With the city’s help, “they were able to get the land they needed for the expansion,” he said. “Without that kind of help, Aluminum Castings might have had to go elsewhere.”
Mayor Sal Garza said the jobs are the type economic development officials want to keep here.
“Aluminum Castings wanted to remain in Galesburg, and the economic and community development teams were very responsive and proactive in securing this opportunity, and worked hard to make sure the expansion happened and Aluminum Castings remains in Galesburg.” Garza said, adding that, “the jobs are quality, family sustaining jobs. We are confident that our assertive efforts will continue to attract these types of jobs and that even in these challenging economic times Galesburg will continue to make progress.”
Markum said the company has experienced success here, largely due to its workforce.
“There are good employees and potential employees in the region,” he said, “and being able to expand here is very satisfying and reassuring.”
The expansion, already under way, is expected to be completed next month.
Camarano said the city offered technical assistance in helping Aluminum Castings expand. He said recent additions of new companies at the Sustainable Business Center, as well as the attraction of Alan Environmental to Carl Sandburg College’s Business Technology Center, have been the result of a lot of hard work. He said the results do not occur overnight.
“I think it’s more than just coincidence,” he said of a recent string of economic development successes in the city. Camarano credited that team assembled by the city for helping achieve economic development goals outlined by the acronym CARE — create, attract, retain, expand.
He said efforts to land the new Caterpillar plant may receive more publicity, but all of the recent efforts are important.
“If you look at Caterpillar, yeah, we’ll do a little elephant hunting,” Camarano said of going after the 1,000-employee factory. “That doesn’t mean we won’t take care of what we’ve got here. It adds up at the end of the day.”