Espey eyes $5.3 million electronics expansion

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Defense and industrial electronics company Espey Manufacturing and Electronics Corp. is making plans for a $5.3 million expansion that will allow it to make bigger electrical transformers.

The company, located on Ballston Avenue, has applied to the Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency for a tax incentive deal worth around $600,000 over 10 years to expand its facility.

The 89-year-old company operates from a 150,000-square-foot building at 233 Ballston Ave. The company makes specialized transformers and power supplies for military and industrial applications, including for use in extreme operating environments. It does all its product design, testing and manufacturing there.

The company employs 144, but in its IDA application warned that about a dozen jobs are at risk without the expansion. The average annual salary is $62,950, which is above the Capital Region average for manufacturing jobs.

The company plans to demolish a shed and replace it with an 8,000-square-foot building containing a 15-ton crane. It will also add a new 5 megawatt electrical substation to serve the entire facility. The company said the expansion will allow it to build larger transformers for customers. The largest Espey can make now are 1 MW transformers, and the expansion would allow for the manufacture of up to 3.8 MW transformers.

“An order in hand and others in the future could be completed here, and current employees would be retained,” according to a project summary. “Alternatively, production would have to be outsourced to a Vermont company, or Espey might relocate their entire facility.”

Another part of the expansion would renovate a cooling unit building, allowing Espey to build larger cooling units for the military.

The publicly traded company has been working with the Saratoga Economic Development Corp., one of Saratoga County’s two economic development marketing companies, to come up with an incentive package.

“This is a good project, and we’re excited for them,” said SEDC President Dennis Brobston.

From the IDA, the company is seeking property-tax-free status for the improvements for the next 10 years. The company pays about $88,000 in property taxes annually, based on a current assessment of just over $3.4 million. The company also seeks an exemption from state and county sales taxes on building materials.

A local company, Munter Enterprises of Saratoga Springs, is expected to build the expansion, which the IDA noted would spur local construction jobs.

Brobston noted the company is well-established and respected.

“They’ve been steady,” he said. “They’re doing very well.”

The IDA will hear a presentation on the application at 8 a.m. Monday, May 8, at the county planning department office in Ballston Spa. Assuming the IDA board is willing to proceed, a public hearing and vote would take place at a meeting in Saratoga Springs, probably in June.

The IDA has power to grant tax incentives as a way of encouraging companies to create jobs by locating in or expanding operations in Saratoga County.

Reach Gazette reporter Stephen Williams at 395-3086, [email protected] or @gazettesteve on Twitter.

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