Specialty Manufacturer To Relocate 115 Jobs To Shakopee

From the City of Shakopee:

December 22, 2020

Cherne Industries, Inc., a specialty manufacturer and supplier of pipe plugs and testing equipment, recently announced plans to relocate its corporate headquarters from Edina to Shakopee. Cherne is a division of Oatey.

Opus Development will be constructing Cherne a new 130,000-square-foot headquarters in the West Shakopee Gateway. The facility will include corporate offices, research and development and manufacturing. It is located on property currently owned by the Shakopee Economic Development Authority and under contract to Opus for development for $1.65 million.

The move will relocate 117 jobs with an additional 50 new jobs, with an average wage over $20/hour plus benefits, planned over the next five years.

A global industry leader and innovator, Cherne plans to invest more than $11 million in its new facility. The relocation will allow the company to expand production and eventually house two first-of-their-kind robots that make specialized plugs. The new facility will also allow Cherne to increase research and development and add additional engineering staff and computer programmers and operators.

At its Feb. 18 meeting, the City Council approved a tax abatement of the city's portion of property taxes to assist Cherne with its relocation. The council has made an effort to attract new, best-in-class companies that are not only innovators, but also have strong projected future growth and pay higher-than-average wages.

Cherne will pay its full property taxes; however, the city will rebate its portion of tax revenue to the company for nine years, as long as Cherne meets its annual job and investment goals. The city will rebate no more than $459,494 over the length of the abatement. The property was previously tax exempt and collecting no property tax revenue.

MORE INFORMATION: Michael Kerksi, Director of Planning and Development, mkerski@ShakopeeMN.gov

This press release was produced by the City of Shakopee. The views expressed here are the author’s own.