An expanding manufacturing company in western Cranston is taking advantage of the city’s industrial tax break.
Cadence Science makes minimally invasive surgical tools and components at its plant at 2080 Plainfield Pike, for procedures such as laparoscopy. And its business is growing.
Cadence plans to build a 34,000-square-foot addition to its 43,280-square-foot plant, which entitles the company to the tax break. The project would cost $3.8 million.
The company employs 151 full-time workers plus 20 temporaries in Cranston. Of those, the hourly employees mostly earn in the vicinity of $15 per hour and most of the salaried employees, from $30,000 to $100,000 a year, according to Brian Plummer, vice president of manufacturing.
Within a year or two, after the plant has been enlarged, Cadence says it will hire an additional 50 employees and then continue to phase in more hires as business growth allows.
To access the tax break, Cadence submitted an application that is subject to City Council approval. The council is enthusiastic.
“Your growth is our growth,” council President John E. Lanni Jr. told company executives at a recent public hearing. The council is expected to vote its approval at a meeting Monday.
“We need more Cadences here,” said Steve Boyle, president of the Cranston Chamber of Commerce.
The tax break entitles Cadence to defer the full tax impact of its new construction, stretching out payments over 10 years. Currently, the tax bill for its building is $98,800, according to Lawrence J. DiBoni, city director of economic development.
The addition ordinarily would bump up the annual tax bill by an estimated $35,000, but thanks to the tax break, Cadence would pay only an additional $3,500 in annual increments over 10 years. In the 10th year, Cadence would be paying 100 percent of the tax bill attributable to the expansion.
The concession, intended for industries doing a construction project of more than $2 million, does not apply to the land or Cadence’s tangible taxes on items such as equipment and furnishings.
Cadence, which has its headquarters in Staunton, Va., came to Cranston as the result of its 2008 acquisition of Popper and Sons, which was located in Lincoln. Cadence wanted space to expand, according to Plummer, and it settled on the empty Quill pen company building on Plainfield Pike.
“Cranston was a good fit in terms of the location and proximity to the highway [Route 295],” Plummer said last week. It was not so far away that the Popper employees would not come along.
With the planned expansion, there will be no more extra space to add on at the current address, according to Plummer.
Asked if Cranston’s industrial tax break program or its other tax policies were a factor in the decision to relocate to Cranston, Plummer said he was not sure because he was not with Cadence at the time.
