Expansion at two Lincoln companies has led to plans to relocate the operations of one to a new building in the Air Park West industrial park.
Geist Plastics will move to a new 24,000-square-foot building that will be built next to sibling company HTIPlastics at 5510 N.W. 38th St.
Paul Almburg, president of HTI and group leader of the plastics division of the two firms' owner, Plastic Companies Enterprises, said the move was necessitated by growth and new business at Geist Plastics and Geist Manufacturing.
The companies share a building at 1821 Yolande Ave., near 18th Street and Cornhusker Highway.
Almburg said the move to a new building would give Geist Plastics the room it needs to expand from two to three extrusion plastics lines making such things as irrigation pipe and electrical cord covers.
Once the plastics lines are relocated, Geist Manufacturing, which makes power-supply products such as surge suppressors, will have additional room to expand, he said.
The expansion already has created six jobs at Geist Manufacturing, and Almburg said an additional 15-20 jobs were expected to be created over the next year, half of which will be at Geist Manufacturing.
Almburg said the company planned to break ground on the new building soon and hoped to move Geist Plastics' operations into it in July.
The Lincoln Airport Authority has agreed to finance construction of the building, with Plastic Companies paying the authority back the $1.6 million principal amount plus 8 percent interest over a 25-year lease term.
The authority's board approved the deal at its monthly meeting Tuesday.
In addition to the two Geist divisions and HTI, Power Companies owns Apex Plastics of Brookfield, Mo.
Almburg said the combined companies employ about 150 people in Lincoln and 200 overall.
