Southwark has been making prefabricated sheet metal ducts and fittings for more than 60 years under three generations of family ownership.

Owner Bill Spiegel says the Philadelphia-based company is one of the biggest ductwork suppliers nationwide, with plants in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, South Carolina, Mississippi and Indiana. The Caldwell plant will be its sixth.

The company sells to distributors. It now serves businesses in Utah through its Nebraska plant, but the Treasure Valley’s centralized location will allow the company to expand its sales in the Pacific Northwest. The Caldwell plant will serve Idaho, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada and Montana.

Spiegel would not share revenues but says the company is profitable.

“We’re excited to be there in Caldwell,” Spiegel says.

Up to 25 jobs will be created when the plant opens in October, and jobs will be added as the business expands, he says.

There will be a range of positions and salaries, with the majority being assembly jobs. He declines to disclose wages.

The Caldwell project has had its own challenges and advantages, says Melanie Kreizenbeck, vice president of K2 Construction Inc., the general contractor for construction.

“It had an extremely tight schedule, and when we started there wasn’t even a public road in front of the site,” she says. “Adding high-piled storage after the start of the project was pretty challenging, too. When companies want to store above 12 feet, a whole new set of rules apply. It changes the fire sprinkler design completely. Trying to implement the necessary changes after we received the building permit without delaying the finish date has been quite the test.”

“On the up side, we had the opportunity to work with the owner before he even owned the land under a design-build concept to save some time.”

The city of Caldwell Building Department helped K2 jump some hurdles in record time, she says.

“We had a building permit three days after the plans were submitted,” Kreizenbeck says.

Sandra Forester: 377-6464, Twitter: @IDS_Sandra