Allstate Tower expanding, relocating

By CHUCK STINNETT
Gleaner staff
831-8343 * cstinnett@thegleaner.com
Friday, April 6, 2007

Henderson-based Allstate Tower Inc. is preparing for an $850,000 expansion that the company said will more than double the size of its work force.

The company, located near Cairo, will relocate to the Adam Street Development Co. property at 1100 N. Adams Street that was formerly the site of PB&S Chemical Co.

Allstate is acquiring National Tank and Tower Co. of Evansville. Within two years, Allstate expects to add 29 full-time jobs to its work force, which presently numbers 21.

Wages will start at $9.88 per hour and average $16.78 hourly plus benefits, according to documents submitted to the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority.

That state agency last week approved Allstate for $460,000 in Kentucky Industrial Development Authority tax credits.

Allstate is a full-service tower contracting and engineering firm. It manufactures, erects and maintains solid rod self-supporting and guyed towers as well as mono-poles for the broadcast, cable, utility and telecommunications industries, according to the company web site.

The company, formerly a division of Henderson-based Pittsburg Tank and Tower Inc., was incorporated as an independent company in 2003. It is owned by Don Johnston.

Acquiring National will strengthen the company, Allstate President Dennis Davis said Thursday.

"Our expertise is in manufacturing," Davis said. "National's expertise is in maintenance. We feel the two companies will fit pretty well together."

Allstate has a lease-purchase arrangement with Adams Street Development. The company plans to move its offices to Adams Street this weekend, then move its manufacturing operations over the next two or three months.

Davis credited Kent Preston and Adams Street Development. "They've been very helpful in this," he said.

"Also, Kevin Sheilley (president and CEO of the Northwest Kentucky Forward regional economic development agency) was very instrumental in putting all this together along with Patty Lacy" of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

"I think this is exciting, to see a locally based company that is growing," Sheilley said.

He said he anticipates Allstate will indeed add 29 workers over two years.

"For them to get the full benefit (of the state tax credits), they have to create the number of jobs they promised," he said. "If they don't, they won't get the full benefits. That's the nice thing about that program -- you have to earn it to get it."