Manufacturer spending $80 million to build Pasco facility

Missouri-based construction equipment manufacturer MiTek has bought 111 acres in Pasco County and plans to build a nearly 500,000-square-foot facility on the site.

According to a statement from the Pasco Economic Development Council, the plant will be in Zephyrhills’ North Tampa Bay Industrial Park and employ 150 people.

The plan is for MiTek to spend about $80 million to build the 480,000-square-foot facility to manufacture steel connector plates and builder products for the construction industry.

MiTek already has offices and a plant in the Tampa Bay market and will consolidate its operations at the new site.

Douglas Krauss, the company’s senior vice president for global supply chain and manufacturing in the area, says in the EDC statement that the new location is close to its existing operations “which will help us retain our talented team members, while also giving us space to increase capacity for raw materials and finished goods.”

The new facility will be developed in three phases, the EDC says.

Phase one, which is underway, includes civil, geotechnical, environmental and architectural research aimed at finding how to meet the company’s specifications. Phase two will begin in the coming months as MiTek finishes with permits and contracts and begins site development and building construction. And phase three includes purchasing equipment for the facility.

The company intends to break ground late this year and is targeting the first quarter of 2026 to start operations.

The industrial park that MiTek is moving to is part of Pasco’s Ready Sites Program, which markets properties as industrial development ready sites to companies looking to move to or expand in county.

Brazilian food producer Bauducco purchased property at the Zephyrhills Airport Industrial Park that was part of the program as did Amazon, which bought property at the Eagle Industrial Park.

MiTek is also benefitting from local incentives.

The EDC says in the statement that the city of Zephyrhills approved incentives totaling up to $2.9 million last month. The package includes waiving or reimbursing transportation impact fees up to $430,500 and permit fees up to $432,425.

And on Tuesday, Pasco County Commissioners approved a 10-year performance-based agreement for ad valorem tax reimbursement, job creation and a workforce training grant up to $3.15 million, the statement says.

MiTek, according to its website, was founded in 1955 and invented the Gang-Nail plate which provided “an affordable and scalable way to manufacture wood trusses.”

Today, it employs about 6,000 people and specializes in “software, services, engineered products, and automated solutions that optimize a more integrated Design-Make-Build approach to construction.”