Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, has started work on the new, $4.5 million manufacturing and administrative facility in Colville, Wash., announced recently by Aladdin Hearth Products


Construction began last month on the about 123,000-square-foot, pre-engineered metal building, says Garco Vice President Frank Etter. Crews are expected to complete the building by March, when Aladdin hopes to move in and start production.


The new structure will have a two-story office area with 24,500 square feet of space, and a more than 99,000-square-foot area for manufacturing and materials handling, Etter says. It is being built on a 17-acre parcel that Aladdin owns on the west side of U.S. 395 just inside the Colville city limits. The project will use about half the parcel, and the remaining land will be used for later growth, Aladdin says.


Construction of the new building is part of a $7 million expansion project that also includes installation of new manufacturing equipment for the company, which makes wood- and gas-burning stoves and fireplaces. Aladdin currently employs about 180 people in Colville, and expects to hire about 70 more when the expansion is completed.


Aladdin was purchased last year by HON Industries, of Muscatine, Iowa, and is operated as a unit of HONs Hearth Technologies Inc. The new Colville plant will consolidate manufacturing that had been done in Colville and in Iowa, and also will have training and research-and-development facilities.


Aladdin leases its current 52,000-square-foot plant on Wynne Street near the center of Colville, and that facility will be available for lease after the company moves, says Aladdin spokesman Kevin Cook.