By Chris Bavender
For 11 years, Walter Payton Power Equipment has been in Lebanon. But the addition of equipment lines left the company outgrowing its current leased facility.
“We had been searching for a new location with highway exposure and acreage in and around Lebanon and Indianapolis,” said Richard Feldman, regional manager for Walter Payton. “After weighing our options and seeing how the business growth is moving north up the I-65 corridor from Indianapolis to the Zionsville, Whitestown and Lebanon areas, we determined the property at the Whitestown Crossing would satisfy our needs now and in the future.”
The building will be designed specifically for the company with approximately 1,000 more square feet of office space and 8,000 more square feet of shop space than its current location. Feldman said the extra shop space is needed to accommodate the company’s ability to safely perform service work and offer increased capabilities for existing and new customers.
“To facilitate this, the new shop will have two, 20-ton overhead cranes spanning 60 feet with a travel length of 120 feet over two of our drive-thru service bays,” Feldman said. “We will have additional space for our parts storage along with the shipping and receiving departments.”
The new office area will increase in size to provide space for future parts, service, sales and administrative employees.
“There will also be a training room added so we can have factory-sponsored service technician training done in-house and offer customers various types of operation, parts and maintenance orientation,” Feldman said.
The move will create six jobs over the next five years, although openings could be filled sooner.
“Our goal is to bring on board additional mechanics that will be offered factory training so they can keep our equipment and customers’ machines in top operating condition, whether it’s in the shop or in the field,” Feldman said. “Our business plan with the new facility will allow us to do boom tear-downs, installations and rebuilds which we currently are not equipped to do. We need to hire the new employees so we can generate revenues that will allow the business to grow.”
Construction could start as early as December with a completion date slated for August 2018.
