The City of Hartselle is getting another manufacturing operation.

Mitchell Investment Properties, LLC has acquired the former Clayton Homes manufacturing facility in the Hartselle Industrial Park. Mitchell will be upgrading the facility and leasing it to Aqua Marine Enterprises, Inc., which produces community and individual storm shelters.

Currently, the company has installed 100 storm shelters so far this year and has another 100 in orders for the rest of the year.

The company is planning to add around jobs with an average salary range between $15 to $20 an hour, which could add $500,000 or more of payroll into our local economy.

They are taking the former Clayton Homes facility, which has been vacant for more than three years now.

This is great news for our community. While it may not be replacing all of the manufacturing jobs that have been lost over the years, there are still possibly 15 to 20 more people who will be employed in the manufacturing sector here. That still means more local dollars that will be spent here.

And this is a business that likely won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Ever since the major tornado outbreak of 2011, storm shelters have been in great demand. And FEMA has been funding the bill for many of those projects.

We applaud this business for investing in Hartselle and everyone who helped bring them here.