DeWys Manufacturing to invest $6.9 million in Ottawa County expansion, create 41 jobs

DeWys Manufacturing to invest $6.9 million in Ottawa County expansion, create 41 jobs

MARNE – Metal fabricator DeWys Manufacturing Inc. will invest nearly $7 million over three years in a 30,000-square-foot expansion to its existing facility in Wright Township.

DeWys Manufacturing worked with Lakeshore Advantage, a Zeeland-based economic development organization, to obtain a $267,000 grant for the project from a state-funded incentive program in cooperation with the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

“The grant provides additional leverage to expand in our state while providing very important and rewarding careers in manufacturing,” Jon DeWys, CEO of DeWys Manufacturing, said in a statement.

The program is designed to provide loans, grants or other assistance to competitive business projects that will create jobs or investment in Michigan.

The expansion of DeWys Manufacturing will create 41 jobs, according to the company.

DeWys Manufacturing chose to expand in Ottawa County over a site in Memphis, Tenn., according to Lakeshore Advantage, which coordinated state and local permit approvals. The organization applied “creatively identified solutions to enable this expansion,” according to Jennifer Owens, president of Lakeshore Advantage.

One of those creative solutions required the use of adjacent land owned by Jackson-based utility Consumers Energy. Together, Lakeshore Advantage, DeWys Manufacturing, and Consumers worked to get Michigan Department of Environmental Quality approval for use of the land for a retention pond, according to Owens.

“The earlier a company reaches out, the better we can help problem solve, make connections and streamline the expansion process,” she said in a statement.

The facility is located in Wright Township, which is expected to support the project by approving a tax abatement in the coming months. In a statement, John Westgate, supervisor of Wright Township, said the continued growth of DeWys Manufacturing “is a great asset to our community.”