UPDATED — By the first week of October, ground will be broken on Peachtree City’s latest “get” — another corporate headquarters.
The city’s senior planner David Rast told the Planning Commission late last month that Osmose Utilities Services would soon be relocating to the city. The company is looking at location on a 16-acre tract near the intersection of Dividend Drive and Ga. Highway 74.
Developer Chuck Ogletree confirmed the development last week and is pleased to be part of the process.
“This is great news for Peachtree City,” Ogletree said.
His company plans to break ground on a 15,000 sq. ft warehouse in October and have it ready during the first quarter of next year. His company will then build a 40,000 sq. ft two-story office building for the company’s headquarters.
As reported in the official minutes of the July 21 Peachtree City Planning Commission, “Mr. Chuck Ogletree of South Tree Enterprises was in attendance to present this conceptual site plan. He said they appreciated the city working with them on relocating the site. Osmose Utility Services was relocating their corporate headquarters from Buffalo, New York, closing their Syracuse location, and potentially closing another location to bring more people here.”
The offices in Buffalo and Syracuse will not be closing, Lauren Glass, a spokesperson for Osmose Utilities Services, Inc., said Thursday.
“The company is simply expanding in Peachtree City,” Glass said via email.
Left, old photo from Osmose’s early days. Photo from Osmose website.
According to the company’s website, osmose.com, the company started in Buffalo with a wood preservative patent that almost fell into the hands of the Nazis.
Today, Osmose Utilities Services, Inc — one of several Osmose companies — provides a variety of services and products to the North American electric utility and telecommunication markets. Osmose is widely known for its industry-leading inspection, maintenance, and rehabilitation services and products, designed to enhance reliability and add years of useful life to in-service utility poles, towers, and other transmission and distribution assets, the website adds.
While there is not a publicly-known amount of jobs created by the move, the plan presented to the Planning Commission shows 163 parking spaces.
In May, the Planning Commission had approved a conceptual site plan for a similar building footprint on a six-acre tract on Hwy.74. Since that time, Osmose entered a contract for a 16.5 acre site south of Rinnai and north of the 665 building on Hwy. 74.
CLARIFICATION — This update includes a statement from a spokesperson from the company’s office in Tyrone that the New York state locations are not being closed.
— By JOHN THOMPSON
jthompson@TheCitizen.com
