Schafer Powder Coatings moving from Carmel to Whitestown

Schafer Powder Coating plans to move to Whitestown and invest $5.5 million in a new facility that’s twice the size of its current Carmel operations.

President Mike Schafer secured a tax abatement from the town of Whitestown last week to help move his 48,000-square-foot contract powder coating operations from 4518 W. 99th St. in Carmel to a 100,000-square-foot warehouse space the company plans to lease at 5450 Industrial Court in Whitestown.

“We’re increasing our capabilities and we needed more space to do that,” Schafer said. “We didn’t have the space here in Carmel.”

Schafer offers companies contract powder coating services, a dry painting method in which finely ground particles of pigment and resin are applied and fused to, typically, metal materials.

While Schafer has heavy machinery and trucking clients, others turn to the company to paint their lighting fixtures, sports equipment, lawn furniture, computer cabinets, die cast parts and more.

The company tried expanding in Carmel last fall. Documents filed with the city show plans for a 31,500-square-foot addition that wouldn’t have met minimum parking requirements. After making it partway through the process, Schafer withdrew.

“We decided that the expansion of our Carmel building was not going to be enough to meet our needs,” Schafer said. “With the land we have, we could have expanded the building from 48,000- to 79,500-square-feet. We feel that the 100,000-square-foot building would better suit our plans.”

The company has been promised a six-year tax abatement worth more than $210,000 for its plans to bring 64 employees with a collective annual payroll of $2.5 million to Whitestown.

Schafer’s $5.5 million investment in the move includes new manufacturing, distribution and IT equipment. Additional painting and washing lines, conveyors, generators, work tables, packaging, computers and IT infrastructure will help double the contract powder coating company’s capacity.

Schafer hopes to begin the move in March.