Manufacturing

For over 30 years, MAAS Aviation has delivered world class standards in aircraft exterior refinishing to over 200 aircraft operators worldwide. MAAS Aviation also provides aircraft painting services to OEM manufacturers and is regarded as one of the leading aircraft painting companies in Europe with a reputation for high quality and reliability.

MAAS Aviation was recently selected by Airbus to be its contract provider of paint services for all new Airbus aircraft built on the Airbus Final Assembly Line Campus at the Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile.  MAAS’ operations at the Brookley Aeroplex also include a strategic partnership with ST Aerospace, the international leader in aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (“MRO”) services.

In October, 2014, MAAS engaged Crescent Growth Capital to help the Irish company attract, structure and close a New Markets Tax Credits financing to construct the first of two Airbus Paint Bays at Brookley Aeroplex.  In January, 2015, MAAS and CGC closed on a $10MM Federal NMTC funding, utilizing NMTC allocation provided by MuniStrategies, and NMTC equity and leverage debt provided by First NBC Bank.

The project will create 34 direct FTE jobs at a facility capable of painting all Airbus aircraft manufactured at Airbus’ $300 million Final Assembly Line. In addition, MAAS will also offer expert painting services to aircraft operators and to customers of the global leading aircraft maintenance service provider, ST Aerospace.  All employees will be offered extensive formal on?the?job training in accordance with both the company’s established training routines and the highest international standards.

In 2009, the principals of Victory Lumber purchased a shuttered lumber/chip mill facility from Arkansas Economic Development Commission.  Over the past 5 years, Victory has operated the chip mill, while developing a strategy to rebuild and restart the larger lumber mill.

On December 29, 2014, Victory Lumber and Crescent Growth Capital closed on a $12.06MM Arkansas State NMTC allocation and a $9MM Federal NMTC allocation to finance the $10MM renovation budget.  NMTC allocations were provided by Enhanced Capital and Stonehenge Capital who provided $7.3MM and $4.8MM of State NMTC’s, and $5MM and $4MM of Federal NMTC allocation, respectively.  First NBC Bank provided term and bridge construction debt.

The fully-renovated lumber mill will add 54 full-time jobs to Victory’s 11 existing positions at the chip mill, in a census tract with more than 15% unemployment.  The project will also bring back to commerce one of Camden’s largest manufacturing facilities.

Orthman Manufacturing was founded by Henry Orthman in the late 1950’s as a manufacturer of conversion kits for implements and tractor brands.  From his 160-acre farm on the Platte River just north of Lexington, NE, Henry Orthman’s original conversion kits allowed farmers to keep their existing implements when they purchased a new tractor.  Over the subsequent 50 years, Orthman has become an industry leader in agricultural innovation, developing industry-standards such as the TripSaver, the Pivoting Disc Stabilizer, the Adjust-a-Rate Planter Drive, the Flex-Gang Cultivator and the Strip Tillage machine.  Today, Orthman has agreements with John Deere, Agco, and Monosem, manufacturing agricultural machinery and implements, as well as conveyors, materials bulk-handling systems and SoilMover industrial earth-moving equipment for a variety of industries.

By 2012, Orthman’s track record of consistently delivering innovative, high-quality machinery pushed market demand beyond capacity at the Platte River facility, so Orthman began working with the City of Lexington on a new plant within City Limits.  The state-of-the-art 115,000 SF manufacturing and painting facility would allow Orthman to continue its growth in the US market, and by moving into Lexington, would provide the City with 200 new jobs: 100 new and 100 existing Orthman jobs that were relocated from Platte River.  The City agreed to provide $1.25MM in TIF bonds, and a $500K Development loan to help with the $13.4MM facility.

In late 2013, Orthman engaged Crescent Growth Capital (“CGC”) to help structure and execute NMTC financing to fill the funding gap.  On August 22, 2014, CGC and Orthman closed on a stacked $10.4MM State NMTC and a $9MM Federal NMTC financing, provided by Enhanced Capital Partners and Rural Development Partners respectively, leveraged using a senior loan provided by Mutual of Omaha.

Vulcan, Inc. is an employee-owned company located on the Alabama Gulf Coast in Foley. The firm operates one of the only completely vertically-integrated aluminum processing plants in the country, in which raw aluminum bars are heated into a molten form, and then rolled into coils. Vulcan cuts the product to the specified length, and manufactures a variety of finished goods. Notably, the Foley plant produces fully 60% of the street signs installed annually in the United States.

Vulcan was founded in 1966 as a traffic sign and metal stampings company in Birmingham, Alabama. The company grew steadily in the ensuing decades, ultimately relocating its entire production operation and corporate headquarters to Foley. In 1986, the company constructed a state-of-the-art aluminum rolling mill, enabling it to produce aluminum coil and sheet for the signage industry, among other customers. A facility expansion was completed in 1997, doubling the size of the sign manufacturing plant. The late 1990s also witnessed the dedication of a new Technology Center to house employee training facilities, as well as Vulcan Traffic Management Services, the firm’s in-house software development division. Another expansion resulted in the addition of slitting, annealing and processing capabilities to the aluminum rolling mill. Most recently, Vulcan completed a multi-million dollar upgrade and modernization of the rolling mill, to incorporate new technology permitting the electromagnetic pumping of molten aluminum.

The region surrounding the location of the Foley, Alabama plant struggles with a 20.9% poverty rate, with correspondingly high rates of unemployment and underemployment. However, the state’s leadership has in recent decades succeeded in attracting more and more high profile industrial investment, bringing for the first time living wage manufacturing jobs to corners of Alabama that have long struggled with severe disinvestment and little opportunity.

The state has lavished incentives upon multinational companies like Mercedes Benz, Hyundai, Airbus, and ThyssenKrupp, betting that their attention-grabbing investments will attract smaller, yet far more numerous investments in industries located upstream and downstream from the goods produced by these companies. It is understood that these big-name investments, while attention-grabbing, cannot on their own break the cycle of poverty and remedy the longstanding deficit of opportunity experienced by so many Alabamans.

Vulcan Inc., located within a rural, low income census tract, successfully weathered the Great Recession and is now in growth mode, undertaking a $17 million expansion to its manufacturing plant. In September, 2013, Crescent Growth Capital worked with Vulcan, Capital One Bank, Hampton Roads Ventures and MuniStrategies to structure and close a “stacked” $22.5 million Federal/$10 million Alabama State QEI to fund the continued expansion of its Plant 6, effectively doubling the company’s hot-rolled aluminum manufacturing.

The Vulcan plant expansion epitomizes the ancillary investment that Alabama seeks. Thanks to the $5.66 million in net Federal and State subsidies, Vulcan is able to expand and refine its operations to maintain its position as the Nation’s largest producer of aluminum street signs, while adding quality jobs in a high poverty, high unemployment region. At least 200 construction workers will be employed in the course of this expansion. When completed, the expanded Plant 6 will employ an additional 60 full-time employees, the majority of whom will be new production line workers with an average wage of $15.00 per hour. Vulcan will also be adding employees to its sales and supervisory staff.

Founded in South Bend, Indiana in 1947, Steel Warehouse, LLC (“Steel Warehouse”) is a family-owned, downstream steel manufacturer engaged in transforming raw steel into various finished products. Steel Warehouse has grown from one location in South Bend to nine manufacturing facilities spread across the Midwest and Upper South, and welcomes a third generation of family members into leadership positions.

Steel Warehouse Alabama, LLC (“SW Alabama”) was conceived to function as a pickling operation for raw steel purchased from the new ThyssenKrupp steel mill in Calvert, AL.  The $32.0 million facility would apply an acidic solution to the raw steel, removing surface impurities and preparing the steel for its end users.  In June, 2013, Crescent Growth Capital worked with Steel Warehouse Alabama, LLC to close and fund a $10MM Alabama State NMTC QEI to fund the construction of the new steel pickling plant.

The Steel Warehouse plant epitomizes the ancillary investment that Alabama intended to attract to the state when it signed its NMTC program into law in August, 2012.  The new Steel Warehouse plant will create 65 new full-time jobs at competitive pay with full benefits for a community with a population of 277 as of the 2010 census.  Furthermore, the new pickling plant will require an additional 35 full-time employees at the ThyssenKrupp mill.