RV parts manufacturer opens distribution center in Springfield.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - An Elkhart, Ind., company that makes aluminum parts for the RV industry has set up a distribution center in Springfield to serve its Northwest customers, a company official said Wednesday.

The company, Postle Aluminum Co., may start manufacturing the parts on site as early as the middle of next year, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Robinson said.

The company is leasing a warehouse building on 48 acres at 5280 High Banks Road from Major Defoe, a Eugene entrepreneur and owner of the Oregon Horse Center, an equestrian complex north of Eugene. Defoe bought the property in 1992 and once used the High Banks Road building as a boat factory. He leased it to RV maker Monaco Coach Corp. in 1997.

Postle is in the aluminum extrusion business, in which chunks of aluminum are heated just enough to be pliable, then squeezed through presses into various forms.

In addition to its headquarters in Elkhart, Postle has facilities in Valdosta, Ga., and Woodland, Calif., near Sacramento.

"We wanted something closer to the Northwest region," Robinson said, to serve customers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

Right now, the company has three or four employees at the Springfield facility. The company could use the building to manufacture aluminum parts, employing up to 20 workers, if there's enough business to support such a venture, he said.

Postle recently asked the city of Springfield whether aluminum manufacturing would be a permitted use in the light medium industrial zone. The city's planning staff concluded that it would be a permitted use because the raw aluminum is not melted or manufactured on site, and because it is similar to metal fabrication, which is a permitted use.

However, if the company moves forward with plans to do aluminum extrusion, it would require a site plan review, planner Steven Hopkins said.

The property has an assessed value of $3.6 million, and a real market value of $4 million, with the building accounting for $3.1 million of that, according to county records.