Officials at a longtime manufacturer in Dubuque announced Wednesday that they will expand the company’s footprint in the Key City and take over an empty warehouse on Chavenelle Road for warehousing and production.
Rite-Hite, a Milwaukee-based company, will move 15 to 20 employees to the former Duluth Trading Co. distribution center at 5955 Chavenelle Road later this month and consolidate warehousing operations around the area into this facility.
“The existing facility is bursting at the seams,” Rite-Hite spokesman Andy Larsen said. “They’ll bring people from the existing plant. It’s all existing production, but it’s in anticipation of growth.”
Rite-Hite currently employs 425 workers in Dubuque at 4343 Chavenelle Road in a 330,000-square-foot facility. The company’s workers build loading dock equipment, including industrial doors, fans and safety barriers for use in warehouses and distribution centers.
“This is an exciting step for the future of our Dubuque operations,” Rite-Hite CEO Micaela Bomhack stated in a press release. “This additional space will give us necessary room to support continued growth globally.”
The new space for Rite-Hite has 216,000 square feet, or just under 5 acres of floor space. Rite-Hite has 2,800 employees worldwide with American factories in Clare, Mich., and Horn Lake, Miss., in addition to Dubuque.
“It’s great news for the community and for Rite-Hite,” said Rick Dickinson, president and CEO of Greater Dubuque Development Corp. “We hoped some folks would be interested in that building. There’s a need for more factory space right now.”
The 5955 Chavenelle property was built in 2020 and was home to Duluth Trading Co., which pulled up shop in late October, taking with it 74 jobs.
Dickinson said his agency helped the warehouse owner, Hodge, acting through its subsidiary, Walter Development, rework its development agreement with the city of Dubuque to continue to receive tax-increment financing, a revision the City Council approved in December.
The agreement helps Hodge recoup property tax revenue that has grown since the warehouse was built, as long as Rite-Hite employs 12 full-time workers.
“We’re thrilled to have them as a tenant in the building and see them expand their presence here in Dubuque,” said Michael Fullan, vice president of development at Hodge.
Rite-Hite’s origins in Dubuque go back to 1909 when what became Frommelt Industries opened in downtown Dubuque. Frommelt moved from its longtime location on Huff Street near the current South Locust Street Hy-Vee to the West Side Industrial Park in 1985.
Rite-Hite was founded in 1965, bought Frommelt in 1991 and continued to grow locally at its 4343 Chavenelle Road facility in the decades since.
The company added a third shift and 100 employees in 2022 as demand increased for energy-efficient industrial products such as the DuctSox fabric air dispersion system produced in Dubuque. That expansion came without local or state subsidies, though earlier developments had.