IKO to build Clay County shingle plant, commit $270M to site (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — A large Toronto-based roofing company confirmed it’s building a 700,000-square-foot campus it hopes to open by 2025.
IKO Industries operates 38 large-scale plants in North America and Europe for the roofing, insulation and waterproofing products it manufactures. Work at the 80-acre site near State Highway 301 and County Road 218 will begin later this year, a press release said.
The total investment at the site is $270 million, and IKO expects to add 100 workers to the area, the release said. It’s the eighth North American shingle factory IKO has opened and the company’s first in Florida. In addition to the asphalt shingle production facility, the campus includes an insulation board plant and a commercial rolled roofing plant.
As a company, we have a strong belief that you can never remain static. You are always in a situation where you are looking to contract or grow your business,” IKO North America CEO David Koschitzky said. “In the past decade, we’ve made some of the largest investment commitments we’ve ever made as a family business. They are a clear statement of our belief in the growth of our company, and of the strength of our industry.”
The project has been referred to as “Project Gator” by Clay County officials.
“This project will provide generational opportunities for Clay County residents in the form of quality, high-wage employment and the county as a whole will benefit from the significant capital investment,” Clay County EDC President Crawford Powell said. “Manufacturing is the backbone of the American economy.”
Photo courtesy of IKO