Insulation Maker Taps Texas for $155M Expansion

SHERMAN, TX-A Valley Forge, PA-based insulation manufacturer is making a $155-million commitment to a North Texas town as it nears the closing date for a take-over of a 545,700-sf shuttered windshield factory on 40 acres. The City of Sherman, agreeing to buy and bank the site’s 147-acre balance, has beat out several cities in Texas, Louisiana and the Midwest for the win.

CertainTeed Corp. will buy the property, leased for the long term to Pilkington Holdings Inc. of Toledo, OH, from MRLR Sherman Inc. Texas Corp., a group of New York City investors that put the asset on the market 18 months ago when the windshield maker left Sherman for Detroit. The sale, which has yet to close, comes within months of Sherman, 64 miles north of Dallas, getting more dark news from another major employer as Johnson & Johnson Co. started to vacate a 549,000-sf facility just a half mile to the west in the Blalock Industrial Park.

Although the final paper has yet to be inked, CertainTeed has ordered the equipment and said it will close a 100,100-sf service center at 1135 W. Trinity Mills Rd. in Carrollton. The 75-employee shop will be relocated to Sherman as soon as the final permits are in hand, which should be within 30 to 60 days, says Tom Newton, CertainTeed’s spokesman. The pullout is believed to coincide with the lease expiration at a building occupied by CertainTeed for about a decade.