Northeast Ottawa Industrial Park’s newest tenant said it plans to start recruiting employees from the local workforce in November. 

Monoflo International — maker of a variety of plastic products — plans to hire 15 workers in the first year and about 65 workers in the first five years of operation, company representative Pete Heaven told Ottawa city commissioners Monday. Monoflo International in August acquired the former Kennel-Aire LLC facility, 1550 N. Davis Ave., Ottawa.

Northeast Ottawa Industrial Park’s newest tenant said it plans to start recruiting employees from the local workforce in November. 

Monoflo International — maker of a variety of plastic products — plans to hire 15 workers in the first year and about 65 workers in the first five years of operation, company representative Pete Heaven told Ottawa city commissioners Monday. Monoflo International in August acquired the former Kennel-Aire LLC facility, 1550 N. Davis Ave., Ottawa.

The Winchester, Va.-based company is renovating the space and bringing in equipment from its Reno, Nev., plant, Heaven said.

Heaven, with the Overland Park law firm of Lathrop & Gage, which is providing legal counsel to Monoflo, credited the work of Richard Nienstedt, Ottawa city manager, Scott Bird, city finance director, and Blaine Finch, interim director of the Franklin County Development Council, with bringing the company to Ottawa.

“We had several options, but Ottawa was too good to pass up,” Heaven said of the reception and cooperation the company had received from local officials.

Monoflo makes such products as plastic storage tubs with lids and plastic cubes, which Heaven said are a common site in college dorm rooms.

The company plans to start recruiting workers in November with an eye toward beginning operations in mid-December to early January, Heaven said.

“We will be hiring local talent,” he said.

Monoflo will be making a $6-million investment in its Ottawa operations, Heaven said.

To help the company defray some of those start-up costs, Monoflo International is seeking a 65-percent tax abatement for the first 10 years of operation, Bird told commissioners.

An independent tax abatement cost-benefit analysis, prepared by the Kansas Department of Commerce, showed the city would receive $6.25 in benefits for every $1 of abated taxes over the course of the 10-year abatement period.

The cost-benefit analysis was quite favorable and more than enough to meet the city’s benchmark of a 1.3 to 1 benefit-cost ratio, Bird said.

The other two local taxing entities affected by the proposed abatement — Ottawa school district and Franklin County — also exceeded that benchmark, Bird pointed out. The school district’s benefit-cost ratio was 4.18 to 1, while the county’s ratio was 2.16 to 1, he said.

Total abatement for the combined three local taxing entities would be about $605,000 over the next 10 years, Bird said. Benefits generated by Monoflo International totaled more than $2.9 million during that same period, he said.

Benefits generated by Monoflo’s new Ottawa plant, according to the state commerce department’s report, included such factors as:

• Jobs created — both direct and indirect;

• Sales and property   taxes collected;    

• Utility fees; and

• Estimated retail sales and other economic activity generated in the community by Monoflo and its local workforce.

The city’s administrative review committee — comprised of representatives of the city, county, school district and FCDC — reviewed Monoflo’s tax abatement application in September, in which Monoflo agreed to participate in a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program that will put dollars in the Franklin County Development Council’s coffers to enhance future economic development, Bird said.

Under the program, Monoflo agreed to pay $9,300 per year — 10 percent of the taxes to be abated each year — to FCDC, for a total of $93,000 over the course of the next decade, Bird said. The result provides Monoflo with a net abatement of 55 percent, he said.

“This is the first time we’ve done it this way,” Bird said of the PILOT program. “If it works out, it could serve as a model for how we do these [tax abatements] in the future.”

After hearing the proposal, city commissioners scheduled a public hearing 7 p.m. Nov. 7 in the commission chambers at City Hall, 101 S. Hickory St., Ottawa, regarding Monoflo’s tax abatement request.

Finch, FCDC’s interim director, told commissioners he thought Monoflo International will make a good corporate citizen, as demonstrated by their willingness to go along with the PILOT program, which would benefit future economic development in the community and Franklin County.

“I think Monoflo will be a great addition to our community,” he said.

Blake Jorgensen, Ottawa mayor, asked Heaven to convey to Monoflo officials and investors the city’s appreciation to them for making an investment in Ottawa.

Doug Carder is senior writer for The Herald. Email him at dcarder@ottawaherald.com