With operations in five formerly vacant factories on Grand Rapids south side, Norton Marketing Inc. may add 21 jobs with assistance of a $2 million tax incentive. As the company expands its Internet sales division, a physical expansion of the properties to accommodate the sales growth could follow.
According to excerpts from the story:
Slowly and quietly, a company one city official calls "the Cabela's of the craft world" has been filling up city factories left vacant by industrial giants like Irwin Seating, Doehler-Jarvis and Rowe International. From those aging structures, Notions Marketing Inc. has been shipping needlecraft, yarn, scrapbook and sewing supplies by the millions. With its headquarters in a 100-year-old building at 1500 Buchanan SW, Notions has 432 full- and part-time workers in five old factories on the city's near Southeast and Southwest sides. "It's a very quiet company -- nobody knows about us," said Herb Lantinga, owner of the business his father founded in their basement in 1938. The city recently approved a tax break for a $2 million purchase of computerized conveyor equipment that is expected to create 21 jobs.
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