Harvey Performance Company held a groundbreaking gathering with employees and local town officials on June 25 and construction has begun for its new 79,000 square foot manufacturing facility at 49 Raceway Drive in Gorham.
Harvey becomes the first project at the sprawling site owned by Shawn Moody’s company. The 62-acre former track is zoned Narragansett Mixed Use Development District Zone and the new plant will help boost the town’s tax base.
“This is going to be a value-added project for the town,” Moody said at a June 3 Planning Board meeting.
Photo courtesy of Mark RobinsonThe longest serving employees of Harvey Performance Company’s Gorham plant recently broke ground on the company’s new manufacturing facility. With CEO Peter Jenkins (center, white shirt) are (l to r) Brett Quimby, Philip Rowe, Tuan Do, Kimberly Nguyen, Anthony Filipiak, Robert Smith and Jacob Barnes, all of whom have worked for the company for at least ten years.
The plant will manufacture the company’s Helical Solutions line of high-performance end mills and serve as the company’s innovation hub. The new building will replace the current facility in the Gorham Industrial Park where the company has been located for the past fifteen years.
“This facility will accelerate our ability to meet important objectives we have for the organization. The additional square footage provides much needed space to build capacity to support our growth, enabling us to expand our research and development capabilities,” said Peter Jenkins, CEO of Harvey Performance Company.
Steve Vatcher, Vice President of Operations, added, “We’re thankful to Gorham for their partnership through the process so far. This new facility will provide a great work environment and will enable us to recruit and retain highly qualified employees and technicians needed to support our growth. We wanted to build this plant close to our existing plant to minimize disruption in the lives of our valued employees.”
Construction of the new facility is expected to take a year. Brian Lavelle, Harvey’s chief financial officer, expects the new facility will result in an additional 150 jobs over the next few years.