PAWTUCKET – Visual Creations Inc. will be moving its two manufacturing facilities, now located in old mill buildings in Providence, into a new facility at 500 Narragansett Park Drive, the former Honeywell building off Newport Avenue here.
The company purchased the building in December 2009 for $2.35 million, creating the VCI Realty Corp. to own the building. Since then, Visual Creations says it has invested more than $1 million to demolish and rebuild the interior of the 161,000-square-foot facility.
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“We needed better, more efficient manufacturing space,” explained Jay Long, the firm’s co-owner, who serves as CEO and president.
“The one-floor building will enable Visual Creations to combine its manufacture of wood and plastic displays with its second operation, Providence Wire Co., which is a wire and metal fabricator, under one roof,” he said.
“We’ll be using every square inch of the new space,” Long added. “It’s a better-suited facility – much like a large football field, where the manufacturing space is one big floor with high ceilings.”
When Visual Creations makes its planned move during the month of April, with the goal of being open on May 1, it will be bringing with it 125 permanent jobs, as well as up to 75 temporary jobs during its busiest production times.
“We’ve had a very good relationship with the state of Rhode Island. We’ve been here for 25 years. Our employee base is well over 95 percent from Rhode Island,” Long said. He and co-owner Doug Robertson explored the possibility of moving to Massachusetts before deciding on Pawtucket.
Long praised the work of Herb Weiss and the Pawtucket Planning Department and Redevelopment Agency. “Herb and his group have made this process much easier than we anticipated,” he said. “We’ve received a tremendous amount of support and red-carpet treatment.”
A news conference at Pawtucket City Hall with Mayor James E. Doyle to officially announce the move is scheduled for Thursday.
Additional information is available at vci-displays.com.
