Fulton Manufactoring N.E.T. & Die, Inc. Seeks Grant Funding For Move To Former K-Mart Building

FULTON –  N.E.T. & Die, Inc. in Fulton is looking to relocate their multi-generational owned machine shop to the former K-Mart building site; the Fulton Common Council unanimously voted to apply for a RestoreNY Grant to jumpstart the company’s vision during last night’s meeting, Tuesday, October 4.

N.E.T. & Die, Inc. is seeking grant funds to help with renovations associated with their move and expansion. The city of Fulton must initially apply for the grant; all financial obligations thus being transferred to N.E.T & Die, Inc. if accepted.

Oswego County Legislature Majority Leader Nate Emmons spoke during the public hearing portion of the meeting, detailing how the RestoreNY Grant works and the timeline associated with the funds. According to Emmons, the grant fund comes around every fews years, the last time occurring in 2016. 

“The state provides these funds to allow for municipalities to apply for money to rehabilitate, demolish and rebuild vacant and blighted properties within our municipal limits, that can be either commercial, manufacturing or residential,” Emmons said. “So we have a wonderful opportunity to look at the city of Fulton and to evaluate some opportunities that we have here.”

 Award amounts fluctuate according to project needs, up to a maximum of  $2 million. The company’s estimated rehabilitation costs for the former K-Mart building come in at around $10 million. According to Emmons, he believes the project will qualify for the maximum amount.

President and CEO of N.E.T. & Die Michelle Shatrau said their business is currently located at 24 Foster St. in Fulton. The former tissue factory building was purchased by her grandfather in the late 60s, with additions added as the business grew and expanded.

“We’re kind of landlocked now; it’s a public road that goes through there so you can’t expand. We can’t really go up – that doesn’t make sense in manufacturing,” Shatrau said. 

According to Shatroau, her family has been looking to move their operations to a different location for the past 20 years, their building’s current square footage coming in at 30,000 square feet. 

The former K-Mart location offers 91,000 feet – an additional 61,000 square feet of manufacturing space. If purchased, the acquisition would include the K-Mart retail space only. 

“Right now, we rent trailers to store [items] – so we have trailer rentals we have to pay for because we can’t put everything in the building – we have material that’s outside, so all of that would come in,” Shatrau said. “The plan right now is that we would build out a portion of that 91,000 [square feet] and the rest of it would be cold storage. But then as we grow, we could continue to develop the inside of that building.”

According to Shatrau, their company manufactures parts for all types of industries, from theatrical rigging, pumps and compressors to blowers, crane rigging and metal processing. 

“Novelis and Crucible are both big customers of ours locally. We do work for Davis-Standard and other machine builders. There’s a lot of machine builders in our area that we do machining for as well,” Shatrua said.  “We need the $2,000,000 – we wouldn’t be asking for it if we didn’t need it. We can’t do this project without the money. We are also applying for a CFA Grant, which will pay 10% of the project. We need both of them in order to make this project work.”

Mayor Deanna Micheals and the council applauded N.ET. & Die, Inc.’s commitment to the city of Fulton and their decision to stay in the area instead of seeking outside locations to move their facility.

“It’s been important for you to keep your family’s business in the city of Fulton.There’s a lot of places you could go and there’s a lot of places you could look at; but you have stayed with us for the last couple years in looking for property within the city limits. And we’ve had to get creative and we’ve had to make some tough decisions,” Michaels said. “But you’ve stayed with us, and I think that says a lot about your commitment to the City of Fulton and our commitment to manufacturing. So, thank you for that because I know how easy that could have been for you to go to any other municipality and seek out other properties that were certainly available.”

The Council unanimously passed the resolution to apply for the RestoreNY Grant application.

Proclamations recognized during last night’s meeting include the following:

• Manufacturing Month
• Knights of Columbus Week

All agenda items were unanimously passed by the Council. To view the full agenda, please click here. 

*Correction – the next Common Council meeting will be held Tuesday, November 1 at 7 p.m.

Fulton Common Council celebrating Knights of Columbus Week. Photo by Shea O’Malley.

Fulton Common Council Proclaiming October as Manufacturing Month. Photo by Shea O’Malley.

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