West Salem firm chooses Sparta

WEST SALEM, Wis. Multistack Inc., which employs about 63 people, plans to move from three leased buildings in West Salem to a new, larger facility in Sparta next year, Chief Executive Officer Mark Platt said Friday,

Both communities were vying for the project and were essentially offering free land, Platt said. Multistack informed Sparta city officials Thursday the company plans to move there, mainly because of substantial federal income tax credits that are available for the Sparta site.

Platt said he understands the tax credits available for the nine-acre Sparta site, along Maple Street and just west of the former Wal-Mart, are worth $800,000 to $1.4 million.

"We had basically said our preference was to stay" in West Salem, Platt said. But because of the tax credits available for the Sparta site, there was at least a $500,000 difference between what the two communities were offering, he said.

Platt hopes to start construction on the new 65,000- to 70,000- square-foot Sparta plant in July. "We'd like to be manufacturing in the building in January, with the move completed by the end of February" 2006, he said. The new building probably will cost $2.5 million to $3 million, he said.

Multistack now operates in about 37,000 square feet of space in three leased buildings on South Oak Street in West Salem and has outgrown those facilities. It was founded in 1989 and makes commercial air conditioning equipment mainly water chillers and mostly for use in commercial office buildings.

The company expects to have $30 million in sales this year, Platt said. Its sales have increased at least 35 percent in six of the last seven years, he said.

Platt said Multistack has about 63 employees today and probably will have twice as many in three to five years. In a new, larger facility, it will outsource less work to other companies, he said.

"This is exactly the type of company every community wants to have," Sparta City Administrator Ken Witt said. "Good-paying jobs, and it's growing really quickly. We're excited about getting it."

Witt said the city owns the nine-acre Sparta site. He said the tax credit is available through the federal New Markets Tax Credit Program.

"It's designed for lowerincome areas," Witt said. "It's based upon census tracts. I think there are only a couple of them (that qualify for the program) in Monroe County, and this (site) is in one of them." The census tract is essentially the southwest quarter of Sparta, Witt said.

West Salem Village President Dennis Manthei and La Crosse County Board Chairman Steve Doyle said Friday they weren't aware Multistack had made its decision. The village and the county were working together to keep it in West Salem.

Copyright La Crosse Tribune Jun 11, 2005
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