RV PLANT PLANNED FOR LANCASTER.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

Rexhall Industries Inc. plans next year to build a 268,000-square-foot recreational vehicle manufacturing plant in Lancaster that will someday employ as many as 600 people, the company president said Thursday.

Rexhall will build the plant on 14 acres on the northwest corner of Avenue H and Seventh Street West, adjoining a smaller plant it opened three years ago, said Rexhall President William Rex.

``Six hundred (workers) is the ultimate goal,'' Rex said. ``We will start out with 200 to 400 workers.''

Rexhall plans to begin construction in January or February and expects to have it completed in late 2000. The company already has a 107,000-square-foot manufacturing plant and a 44,000-square-foot service center in Lancaster.

The new plant will allow the company to expand its motorcoach production and to produce its own line of diesel-pusher chassis. Rexhall buys all of its chassis from outside suppliers.

The new plant will cost approximately $7 million to $10 million and will be highly automated, with the capability of building 10 motorcoaches a day.

Rexhall builds six lines of motorcoaches, ranging in size from 26 feet to 39 feet.

Rexhall announced it has received more than $6 million in orders at the recent Recreational Vehicle Industry Association show in Louisville, Ky. The company took in more than 90 orders at the show.

The typical RV owner is in his mid-50s to mid-60s. As the baby boom generation grows older, the recreational vehicle will grow with it, company officials said.

The recreational vehicle industry is spending $20 million to $30 million on advertising to try to attract new buyers, Rex said.

Rexhall moved from Saugus to Lancaster in 1996. To attract the company, the city of Lancaster provided 10 acres of industrial property estimated to be worth $500,000 at the time.