LANCASTER – The city of Lancaster joined Morton Manufacturing Wednesday for a ceremony to mark the groundbreaking of Morton’s new corporate headquarters in Lancaster.
“I’m really excited,” said Chairman and CEO Yolanda Morton. “It has been made possible by the help of the city of Lancaster.”
Morton Manufacturing’s new facility will occupy a 10.06 parcel in the Lancaster Business Park, near East Avenue K-15 and Business Center Parkway. Construction is expected to be completed in nine months.
Upon opening, the aerospace fastener manufacturer is expected to bring 300 jobs to the Antelope Valley – 200 existing employees, as well as 100 new positions for local workers.
“What we have coming to this city is truly astonishing, and we can’t think of a better company to start it,” said Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said. “You are taking us from our roots, which is aerospace, and you’re bringing us into small manufacturing, which is going to be the backbone of this community.”
“This year we will be announcing more than just one of these facilities, and it’s because of this,” Parris continued.
In 2011, Morton’s management team began seeking a location for a new facility when orders started to outstrip the production capacity of their current facility in Santa Clarita.
The Lancaster City Council on June 26 approved a development agreement to create a site for Morton Manufacturing’s new corporate headquarters. The city’s participation in the project included the subdivision of the formerly 21-acre site to accommodate Morton’s needs, as well as the installation of the necessary infrastructure to service the Morton site. The engineer’s estimate for the necessary improvements is $1,950,000, and funding for this has been included in the FY 2012-2013 Capital Improvement Program. Read more here.
When completed, Morton’s new 88,000-square-foot facility in Lancaster will represent a 96% increase in size over its existing facility, providing tremendous potential for future growth.
The firm’s client list includes Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney and General Electric. And the firm may soon be adding Boeing the list, said Chief Operating Officer Dale Ray.
“We’re looking at making high strength frame bolts [for Boeing],” Ray said. “They had been to our facility about three weeks ago; they came in, they looked at us and said ‘we want you.’”
Manufacturing jobs such as those offered by Morton Manufacturing are highly valued by local governments due to their power to create wealth within a community, said Lancaster City Manager Mark Bozigian.
“Every dollar generated by the sale of a manufactured product supports $1.40 in output from other sectors, which translates to tremendous potential to build our local economy,” Bozigian said.
“The arrival of Morton Manufacturing in Lancaster will not only bring 300 jobs to our community, it will also contribute to diversifying our local economy,” said Parris. “Firms such as Morton help to make the Antelope Valley less dependent on a given industry and thus less vulnerable to changes in the economy.”
Morton Manufacturing will begin recruiting employees for the new facility in mid-2013.
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NIMBY says
Also, according to the website http://www.Simplyhired.com the average salary at Morton Manufacturing is $28,000. Which amounts to approximently $14.38 an hour. Barely a living wage.
really says
How many jobs have you created? The beauty of our country is that we as individuals can choose where we work. If 14.38 an hour isnt enough than dont work there! Sure it would be great if everybody made great money. It would also be great if I had a unicorn that crapped gold…That wage is also almost double the minimum which is pretty good when you consider you probably need no special skills to work there…
NIMBY says
Bringing 300 jobs?! Two-Hundred of the jobs are ALREADY filled by existing employees. This company is ONLY bringing 100 jobs! Big Whoop-de-doo!
Scott Pelka says
I have been by there twice in the last 2 days… No construction going on.
J. Ripper says
This company literally makes nuts and bolts. They might be really, really strong nuts and bolts, but that’s it — fasteners. Nothing indicates to me that the nature of their work is particularly high-tech or their jobs high paying. True, it’s jobs, and the “plan” is about 100 of those 300 are actual new jobs… but it would be nice to see higher-tech, higher-paying jobs here.
I wonder if Delta Scientific ever added the new jobs for Palmdale that they were “planning” on adding when they moved there, also from Santa Clarita?
Adam Chant says
Unless you work at WalMart or flip burgers then almost all jobs are high-tech. At Morton the jobs require skilled machinists to either run manual mills or (likely) CNC mills that require both machinist skills and computer skills. [Nunchaku skills… bowhunting skills… computer hacking skills… Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills! – Napoleon Dynamite] In either case the manufacturing that is done at Morton can’t be considered low-tech and the majority of the jobs will probably be above living wage.
One major advantage of a company like Morton is that while they are Aerospace they are diversified over both commercial and government customers and that includes many international entities. Making $1000 a piece custom Inconel fasteners for propulsion systems used by Pratt & Whitney and Rolls Royce is nice, but providing all of the fasteners for a commercial P&W 545 Series turbo fan used on every Cessna XL series and a few other commercial aircraft is just as important.
AV Resident says
This sounds like someone that has no skills and has no understanding about the Aerospace Industry. As with any job, Aerospace pay is determined by your skill level and not by the name Aerospace. For someone to say that Aerospace is not high-tech shows the ignorance that some may have when they speak of something they know nothing about.
After doing some research on Morton Manufacturing, it appears that the fasteners that they produce are made from high temperature alloys that are used to hold the internal portion of jet engines together.
Again, for someone to state that this is not a high-tech company after doing research on what their products actually do, would make me question where J.Ripper is getting their information from.
Congrats to Morton Manufacturing on their arrival to Lancaster.
Al Cushman says
Sounds like another Ritter Ranch Project to me. Welcome to scam city staring King Rex.
Tina Marie says
Ritter Ranch is in Palmdale! wtf does it have to do with Rex?
T-Bone says
“Upon opening, the aerospace fastener manufacturer is expected to bring 300 jobs”
How does this diversify the Local Economy? It is Areospace which leads our Local Economy, always has!
Happy for the Jobs, just didn’t get that statement.
QHR says
This is great news! Glad to see companies move here to help our economy. Hope to see more headliners like this in coming months!
J. Ripper says
Pretty Boy Rex is too pretty to wear a hard hat… too bad the hard hats were just for show and nothing actually fell on them.
Jellydonut says
His big head wouldn’t fit!