Harris Fabrication gets $190K to expand in Topeka, while Choose Topeka will continue

Harris Fabrication, 2520 N. Kansas Ave., will expand after being awarded Wednesday a cash incentive of $190,000 through Topeka and Shawnee County's Joint Economic Development Organization.

It is expected to create a capital investment of $2.1 million and an economic impact locally of $175 million over 10 years, JEDO members were told. It will create "up to 30 new full-time jobs" with an average salary of $48,000, plus benefits.

"Harris Fabrication is one of the local companies helping put Topeka/Shawnee County on the map as a hub for manufacturing," said Molly Howey, president of GO Topeka. "When they were first considering expansion, the company started working with Go Topeka on the small business side to see if small-business incentives might be a good fit.

"It quickly became clear the ambitious scope of their project would be better suited to traditional expansion incentives."

The local, metal fabrication company is advertising positions on its website for welder/fabricator, CNC machinist and industrial painter.

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Until Wednesday, the incentive had been known as Project Kool-Aid.

Harris Fabrication president Andrew Harris expressed his gratitude to the JEDO board members.

"We're really looking forward to partnering with you guys and continuing that growth in the future," Harris said. "We've been in this area since I started this in 2011 and we've been in Topeka since 2013 and the support that you guys have given us has been great so far. We really appreciate the money to help fund some of the stuff that we have coming forward."

In a statement, Mayor Mike Padilla called the expansion a win for Topeka.

"Not only will the growth of Harris Fabrication result in positive economic returns for this community," Padilla said, "but the project will provide new job opportunities and further prosperity for families that call the capital city home."

Choose Topeka 2.0 awarded $365,000 in incentive funding to continue

JEDO members also voted to approve incentive funding in the amount of $365,000 for the Choose Topeka 2.0 Talent Incentive Program.

Approval will include "the next round of funding for the employer match, boomerang and military options." Of the total, $300,000 will go to employer match, boomerang and military programs, while $65,000 will go to welcome packages, welcome program events and career connection platform.

The relocation program will include new eligibility requirements and changes that include allowing graduate students at Washburn University to remain in Shawnee County, mandatory participation of a welcoming program, relocation of those who once lived in Topeka and a required survey to "provide demographic, family and overall satisfaction information."

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"The success of Choose Topeka, over the last three years, has been pretty great," said Trina Goss, Go Topeka's director of business and talent initiatives. "We've had 99 individuals and families who have relocated to Shawnee County and are still here through the Choose Topeka program."

Since the start of the program in 2020, the Choose Topeka program has had $600,000 in funding. Through the program's employer match option, recipients came from 22 different states. Another 73 applicants received an incentive. Thirty Shawnee County employers participated, and the average salary per recipient was $90,762.

Twenty-six applicants from 11 states received incentives to be remote workers for Topeka-based companies.

Certified 2022 data by the Kansas Division of the Budget reported Shawnee County recently recorded its largest single-year growth in population in 10 years.

Shawnee County's population grew by 2,265 people, the highest single-year percentage growth among the top five most-populated counties in Kansas. Goss told JEDO members "about 10 percent of that increase is due to the Choose Topeka program and residents moving here through the program."

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Shawnee County Commissioner Bill Riphahn asked Goss if the program tracks those who received funding

"Maybe in five to 10 years, we can look back and say, 'These people stayed in Topeka,'" Riphahn said.

Goss said she would support an annual survey, "just at least to see their overall satisfaction within the community and make sure they're still here."

"When a person applies for the program or even when an employer submits a candidate for the program, there is an approval process we go through just to make sure they're actually maintaining the criteria we've set," Goss told The Capital-Journal.

Padilla said the survey should give an indication of their satisfaction and whether they have advocated for the program.

"And maybe they've brought other people into it because of their experience with the program," he said. "So, I think it's important you have that survey on a pretty regular basis."

What other incentives were offered and approved?

JEDO board members also voted unanimously to approve $45,000 for what is dubbed Project GiGi, an existing company in Topeka that plans to make an "additional capital investment over the next 5 years" totaling $725,000.

That expansion is expected to create six new jobs with an average wage of "at least 60,000."

Keishera Lately is the business reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. She can be reached at klately@cjonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @Lately_KT.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Harris Fabrication earns incentives to expand; Choose Topeka to go on