SIOUX CITY -- In 2012, the city of Sioux City sold Sabre Industries 150 acres to consolidate its operations in the city's Southbridge Business Park.
A decade later, Sabre will have filled up its business campus with the completion of a 100,000 square foot expansion -- a galvanizing plant and supporting offices.
It's a big expansion for Sabre, one of the largest U.S. suppliers of steel structures for the utility and communications industry, obviously. The $25 million investment in the company's location near Sioux Gateway Airport is also good news for Siouxland, indicating that Sabre, one of Sioux City's largest employers with 500 workers, will be around for a while.
"It's a pretty substantial expansion for them," said Chris Myres, a city economic development specialist. "We know that when they make investments like that here, it helps solidify their place here."
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Construction began in January 2021, and the building is expected to be finished in early summer. Installation of the plant equipment will last until late summer, and the highly automated plant should be operational by the end of the year.
The plant will enable Sabre to galvanize utility poles, a process that includes dipping the large structures in large vats of acids and chemicals, giving them a silver finish and protection against corrosion, in Sioux City. Sabre's other galvanizing plants are in Texas.
The expansion is expected to create 76 new jobs.
"These are primary industry jobs that are the types we like to see created here," Myres said.
Sabre's expansion is aided by $1.2 million in financial incentives from the Iowa Economic Development Authority Board. Incentives include $861,531 in investment tax credits and $321,000 in refund of sales, service and use taxes for construction materials. The city is adding nearly $5 million in property tax rebates over 15 years.
The expansion is on the west side of Sabre's site and just off of Andrew Avenue. The city is spending $1.6 million to pave and improve Andrew Avenue with help of a $671,000 grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation.
The Andrew Avenue paving opens the area to more potential growth. The area could be attractive to Sabre's suppliers and other companies that need galvanizing services, Myres said, or warehousing and trucking companies that could support a number of Sioux City industries.
Sabre was founded in 1977 in Sioux City by Bailey Aalfs as a manufacturer of high-frequency antenna systems. As cellular phone usage grew in the 1990s, the company began designing and fabricating towers for the wireless communication industry. In more recent years, Sabre's utility business has boomed, with the growth of wind energy farms and electric transmission lines.
Sabre produces utility poles at its Sioux City plant.
