MOUNTAIN PINE – The city has spent the last decade casting about for an economic mainstay since Weyerhaeuser shuttered its mill here in 2006, but two enterprising city sons are betting they can revitalize their hometown.
Morgan Wiles and Shaun Keefe are all in on Mountain Pine, pushing their chips to the center with last month’s $550,000 purchase of the 389-acre mill site that’s sat idle since its veneer and plywood operation closed over a decade ago.
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One of the few sites in Garland County capable of supporting heavy industry, it will be the future home of WinChoice USA. The two principals behind the window retailer and manufacturer, Wiles and Keefe said their business has outgrown its Millcreek Road call center and administration building and Bluestone Court manufacturing center.
“We have a lot of experience in this industry, and we’re looking to expand what we do,” Wiles said. “We have a huge growth plan. There’s a lot of things we want to do with this site. Probably within 36 months, we’ll be bringing our whole facility from Mill Creek to Mountain Pine.
“Just with the window business alone, we’re wanting to have about 300 to 350 employees.”
Keefe said the company has grown “exponentially” since its founding in 2012, with its retail and manufacturing divisions accounting for $28 million in annual sales. The company owns 12 locations across the southern United States with plans to franchise 10 more. Ultimately, they hope to license over 300 franchises that will all sell windows made in Mountain Pine.
“If or when we accomplish that, we’ll be in the 40,000 window-a-month range,” Keefe said.
In addition to windows, Wiles and Keefe are striking out on a new venture that could make the mill site one of five locations the state licenses as a medical marijuana cultivation facility.
“This is the perfect spot for it – a rural area that needs jobs,” Keefe said.
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In addition to the economic benefit, Wiles said it would also help alleviate prescription-drug addiction in the county.
“Anywhere you look in the country that has legalized medical cannabis, opiate addiction has dropped 28 to 30 percent,” he said. “This is a community that desperately needs something like that.”
Wiles said the city and the Mountain Pine School District support the cultivation facility plan.
“You have to get a community behind you if you’re going to attempt to get (a cultivation license),” he said. “That’s why we worked so hard with the mayor and the city. Before we moved out here, we explained our plan to them and the economic potential it could bring. We made sure we had their full backing.”
Keefe’s brother-in-law, Prateek Gera, is a partner in the window and cultivation enterprises. Like Wiles, 32, and Keefe, 30, Gera, a 24-year-old commercial real estate developer from Jonesboro, has shown a precocious business acumen.
He said his business partners are eager to put their abilities to work in Mountain Pine.
“They really have a lot of passion about this town,” Gera said.
Mayor Rick Petty said the city has pinned its hopes on the two Mountain Pine High alums, betting that the success they built WinChoice into bodes well for their new endeavor.
“Those two boys have never failed,” he said. “You have to take that into consideration. Morgan and Shaun have never failed on anything. With a track record like that, you have to expect the best.
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“I believe they’ll be a huge asset to Mountain Pine. I welcome both with open arms. It’s something Mountain Pine has been needing for a long time.”
By October, they plan to have built a 48,000-square-foot window manufacturing facility where the mill’s plywood division once stood. Within five years, they envision a 15,000-square-foot glass manufacturing division and a 50,000-square-foot site for manufacturing specialty windows and doors.
The plans also include a 40,000-square-foot office space. Wiles and Keefe’s energy-efficient roofing company, Winsulate USA, is already operating in City Hall. The 8,000-square-foot space was part of the Weyerhaeuser property they purchased.
Wiles said WinChoice plans on sharing City Hall with city staff for the time being.
“When we build our facility, we may grant (City Hall) back to them,” he said. “We’ll do anything we need to to work with the city and make them more prosperous and give them a better chance of getting where they need to be.”
Wiles said Mountain Pine offers a game workforce that welcomes the return of industry to the city. He’s certain that despite laying dormant for more than a decade, the workmanship and vigor that made the mill operate round the clock is still a vital part of the community.
“In a mill town, everybody has a work ethic,” said Wiles, whose father worked at the mill for 30 years but now works at WinChoice. “Everybody has a work ethic here. They just have nothing to do now. You’re talking about people who are used to working 70 or 80 hours a week and not complaining about it.
“You still have that same bloodline. We’re getting people knocking on the door every single day even though we’re not even in operation yet. We know the work ethic is here. We know the personalities are here. We know this is an employer’s dream when it comes to loyal employees.”
Local on 06/02/2017
Source: https://t-tees.com
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