Knox City Council to Consider Tax Abatement for Sabre Manufacturing

The General Manager of Sabre Manufacturing was at the most recent meeting of the Knox City Council to discuss upcoming plans for the company. Jason Riese told the Council that with the acquisition of property east of the plant, they can expand the facility and add a new product line.

Riese said the requirement for tax abatement is that the company add 20 new jobs and he said that should not be difficult.

“The only comment that I will interject is we’re like any other company. Our demand out there is determined by what’s going on in the market. I feel pretty comfortable as long as the market stays where it’s at today. The 20 employees is very conservative,” said Riese.

The company already employs 145 workers. Riese was asked if he feels the seven-and-a-half acre property is enough to accommodate the expansion.

“That’s obviously one of my concerns. We’ve been busting at the seams for the last year with the area that we have which is just under five acres. With this new acquisition, we gained another two and that’s really helped out a lot. That’s alleviated a lot of growing pains having that extra room.  It’s mainly because the tanks are so large. That being said, my only other issue on the space is my parking issue. I hope to alleviate that as well. I’ve got an idea to alleviate some of the issues that we have there. We’ve also talked about buying some off-site property if we have to and that would be used for temporary storage. One way or another, if it becomes a problem again, we will address it at that time and acquire some more property.”

The Council will consider tax abatement at its September 27th meeting. The new plans call for Sabre to add $1 million in upgrades.