GREENFIELD — A New Jersey-based cosmetics company with operations in Indianapolis plans to build a warehouse and move its headquarters to Greenfield’s northwest side.
Daneli Corp. intends to bring a 50,000-square-foot storage and distribution facility to the northwest corner of East County Road 200N and Royal Drive, not far from the Yamaha Marine Precision Propellers plant.
Joshua Kong, director of Daneli Corp., said his father started the company in New Jersey and that it sells beauty and other related products for spas and salons. He added he and his family moved to Indiana a few years ago after he graduated from Rutgers University.
“I’m the second generation in the family getting into the business, and just a lot of entrepreneurial hard work has got us here, and the business is rapidly growing,” Kong said. “We’re just trying to make Indiana our new headquarters and new home.”
Daneli Corp. currently has operations in Indianapolis. Kong said the company is drawn to Indiana because it’s centrally located and good for distribution. The business serves many nearby states, he continued, including Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky, through its own network of delivery truck drivers and sales and customer service representatives.
“We do all of that with our own employees and service a very large territory,” Kong said.
The company currently employs eight in Indianapolis and plans to increase by 20 after moving to Greenfield. The wage scale will be $18 to $20 an hour with opportunities to grow.
Greenfield City Council voted 5-1 to approve a 10-year real property tax abatement for the building that would fully abate taxes in its first year before gradually phasing in taxes over the rest of the decade. A public hearing on the abatement and second vote is slated for the council’s July 28 meeting.
Council members Mitch Pendlum, Gary McDaniel, Dan Riley, Jeff Lowder and John Jester voted in favor of the tax break while George Plisinski voted against. Kerry Grass was not present.
The resolution for the abatement states the facility will have 28 employees with salaries and wages totaling just over $1.1 million, an average of just over $39,000. Kong said the median salary would be between $40,000 and $50,000. Plisinski said he felt that left wages on the bottom half of the median for entry-level employees too low for him to be comfortable with supporting a property tax abatement.
“I realize the council’s not in the business of telling employers how to pay their employees,” Plisinski said. “I feel for them, I want them to succeed, but it’s got to make financial sense, and for me it didn’t pass.”
The Greenfield Plan Commission approved the development plan for the project earlier this week. Clay Smith, general manager of Ferguson Construction’s Indianapolis office, which will build the facility, said at that meeting that the company plans to start construction right away.
Kong said it’s targeted for completion by the end of the year.
“We’re excited to get this going,” he said. “We’re excited to be here and hopefully this is only the beginning of a long road ahead of continued growth.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
- 50,000-square-foot warehouse
- Northwest corner of East County Road 200N and Royal Drive
- Daneli Corp.
- Cosmetics and beauty products
- 28 employees
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