ROTTERDAM — A Syracuse-based forklift sales and service company will be moving its Capital Region office from Colonie to Rotterdam.

Thompson & Johnson Equipment Co. plans to purchase 11 acres on Mariaville Road at Burdeck Street, according to the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority. 

The company will build a 21,000-square-foot office and warehouse on the site and bring 35 jobs there, said Metroplex. The agency’s board Wednesday night voted to approve a package of incentives: exemption from sales tax for the materials needed to build the structure and a partial exemption on property taxes for the new building. 

The company will make a payment in lieu of taxes equal to 50% of the full tax bill for the structure, then 5 percentage points more each year until it begins paying the full tax bill in year 11. It will be fully taxed on the land value the whole time.

Thompson & Johnson opened for business in 1954 in Syracuse and also has offices in Elmira and Binghamton.

It is focused on the material-handling sector, selling, leasing and servicing new and used forklifts, pallet jacks and related equipment. 

Forklifts are the type of thing most people don’t see or think about much, but modern commerce would not function without them.

And with the rise in the warehousing and logistics industry, business is booming, the Albany-area manager of Thompson & Johnson told this newspaper recently. It has outgrown its quarters in Colonie.

“We are very excited for the move to Schenectady,” President and CEO David Schneckenburger said in a news release this week. “The town and county personnel have been very professional and easy to work with. We are looking forward to completing the project that will allow us to continue to grow, taking care of our customers, and thereby protecting our employees’ careers.”

Metroplex Chairman Ray Gillen said the company’s future location at 681 Mariaville Road, a few hundred yards from the entrance to the Thruway and Interstate 88, is ideal for the industry in which it operates.

“This location in Rotterdam offers great access to the fast-growing logistics sector in the Capital Region and New England,” he said in the news release.

Categories: Business, News, Rotterdam, Schenectady County