Keeping Lead-Lok local

SANDPOINT - With the city working to keep Lead-Lok jobs in town, officials are asking other Bonner Business Center businesses to relocate.

A tenant of the Bonner Business Center since its foundation, medical device manufacturer Lead-Lok was purchased in the spring by New York-based company Graphic Controls. With the company's expansion plans requiring full use of the center, however, city officials seek to avoid another economic hit following the loss of Coldwater Creek by asking other business tenants to find new accommodations.

According to Sandpoint Planning Director Jeremy Grimm, Graphic Controls officials were prepared to remove Lead-Lok's 62 jobs from Sandpoint if they couldn't accommodate their planned expansion. Furthermore, the company plans to add 20 more jobs over the next year-and-a-half with salaries averaging $32,000 plus benefits, Grimm said.

Graphic Controls is planning a $1.5 million investment in facility and infrastructure costs to expand the Lead-Lok business established by Jim Healy in the 1980s. Grimm told council members at their most recent meeting that they were strongly considering the business relocation and investment incentives offered by New York, which include major breaks on property, sales and income tax.

"They are giving away the farm," Grimm said.

As a business already occupying one of the BBC's three buildings, Lead-Lok requires more space and equipment considerations to launch the next phase of the business. Grimm said he worked with the Idaho Department of Commerce to nail down a plan that would keep Lead-Lok based in Sandpoint.

"We were able to come to an agreement on a lease that will allow Lead-Lok to expand into the five offices in the BBC and into the kitchen area," Grimm said.

The new agreement will result in the city making improvements to the center using Graphic Controls' lease payments.

It will also mean that after five years, the BBC fund should have more than $400,000 in surplus funds, which will help clear up the center's maintenance backlog. Finally, the agreement should pave the way toward the construction of a new, larger facility some time down the road.

Of course, the agreement means that the BBC's other six tenants and eight users of the industrial kitchen will have to find new accommodations. Grimm said earlier this month, he gave those tenants 45 days' notice to relocate their businesses. The decision is based on a clause in the leases that after three years, either the tenant or the city can cancel the lease.

"It was very difficult to deliver that news to those tenants and users, but I firmly believe this is in the best interest of the community," Grimm said.

"It will also put the BBC on a much stronger financial footing," he added.