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Ace Glass Construction Corp. has invested approximately $4 million into the property and expansion of a new location in Little Rock, Ark. The facility will feature new machinery, 2 acres of solar panels to power the operation and a glass recycling plant, factors that put the facility in the running for LEED Platinum status.
President Courtney Little says the timing was right for the move.
“The zoning of our current location was changing and it wouldn’t make sense to run an industrial operation there anyway. We’ve been thinking about moving for the past two to three years,” he says. “We’re moving to the fabrication sphere to supplement the work we already do. It will give us the opportunity to work for regional fabricators. We’re busting at the seams in our current location. This will allow us to accommodate for the work we’re having to turn down.”
The new location is around 100,000 square feet, double the size of the company’s current 32,000-square-foot office space and its rented 20,000-square-foot storage space combined, a fact that Little hopes will allow Ace Glass to say “yes” more often.
The company has already purchased a beveller, polisher, vertical washer and a Diamon-Fusion fuse cube.
The move has the potential to create ten fabrication jobs, and later on down the line, 100 plus jobs at the company’s new glass recycling plant. Ace Glass plans to recycle consumer glass picked up curbside around Little Rock, as well as architectural glass. The pilot program will begin next month.
“We hope to take architectural glass back in and get it back to the float glass guys like Vitro so that it gets back into the stream. Glass is one of the easiest things to recycle, aside from water, and it’s a shame we’re not recycling more of it. Hopefully this will lead a push to recycle more of our own waste in the industry,” says Little.
He believes protecting the environment through recycling and energy-efficient building materials is the right thing to do environmentally, financially and morally. That’s why the company has installed 2 acres of solar panels behind its new facility to power the operation. Little says the new location will be a net-zero-energy facility with possible LEED platinum status.
The shop is already operational. Ace Glass’s office will be open at the new site by the end of April.
