It was almost a year ago when Exotic Metals Forming Company (Exotic) announced at a March 14 press conference that it was opening a facility in Airway Heights that would hire up to 150 local employees.
Eleven months later and the facility, which is located on the south side of McFarland Road at Lawson Street and expected to open in the summer, is almost complete. Exotic is scheduled to receive a temporary certificate of occupancy for the facility from Airway Heights, Feb. 25.
Development Services Director Derrick Braaten said Walker Construction Inc., who helped design and build the facility, completed the building one month ahead of schedule.
“Walker had a contracted date and assured everyone ‘we’ll guarantee you something by the end of March,’” Braaten said. “The building got a temporary certificate of occupancy because the construction went so smooth. This gives Exotic time to start shipping equipment. As far as a hiring date is concerned, it’s entirely up to Exotic when they want to start hiring.”
According to Braaten, a third party must inspect each piece of equipment before it leaves Kent, and when it arrives in Airway Heights. The facility itself will also need to pass various inspections from the city.
Emmett Summers, who worked on the Exotic Metals facility, said construction is staying ahead of schedule, as well as the experience of the crew who worked on it helped finish it early. Summers said the crew is completing the finish work, which includes flooring, plumbing and wiring the building.
“We’ll stick around and wait until the owner goes through their punch list and we’ll work on stuff they find that we might have missed,” Summers said.
Braaten said the city is currently going through and making sure the paperwork is “taken care of.”
“We’re in a little bit of a scramble, we expected another month,” Braaten said. “Right now we’re going through our own finalized check list for the facility.”
Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.
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