SCS plant loss means 60 layoffs

GREELEY – The reeling housing industry, suffering one of its steepest downturns since the 1980s, has chalked up a Greeley casualty with the closure of Structural Component Systems Inc., a Nebraska-based manufacturer of roof and floor trusses.

About 60 employees have lost their jobs as a result of the closure.

The company-owned building, a 94,000-square-foot manufacturing center at 2401 Second Ave. in the southeast Greeley industrial zone, is now on the market for $3,775,000, listed by Realtec Commercial Real Estate Services’ Greeley office.

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With sales among some larger homebuilders off by more than a third this year compared to last, suppliers like SCS are particularly vulnerable.

Upstate Colorado president and CEO Larry Burkhardt said he learned of the closure in early October.

“It’s a shame to lose jobs like that, especially in the construction industry,” Burkhardt said. His agency’s file on the company counted 61 employees, down from a previous number of 90.

Officials at Structural Component Systems’ Fremont, Neb., headquarters did not return phone calls inquiring about the closure.

The company was founded in 1987 and grew steadily during the housing boom of the 1990s. SCS added a second plant in Iowa in 1991, and built the Greeley plant in 2002. SCS counted 350 employees this year.

The company’s product line includes roof and floor trusses for single-family homes and multi-family projects, prefabricated, panelized wall systems and custom packages for homebuilders.

Most of the company’s projects, according to Web site listings, are high-end single-family homes and multi-story apartment and condominium projects.

Listing broker Mark Bradley said that prospects for finding a new user for the modern manufacturing building were brighter now than at any time in the past few years.

“The good news is that the industrial real estate market is pretty strong right now,” Bradley said. “There aren’t many properties that can offer massive power supplies, overhead cranes and so forth that that building has.”

Burkhardt said he and Upstate Colorado senior vice president Cathy Schulte had a packed schedule of meetings with prospective employers, some on repeat visits to the region.

“Right now, we’re seeing a lot of prospects,” Burkhardt said. “I don’t deal with the real estate aspect the way Mark does, so I would have to defer to his judgment on that. But Cathy and I both are just slammed. She’s dealing with about four or five others that we consider hot.”

Burkhardt said he expected an announcement of a major expansion by an existing Greeley employer soon, and that two other such expansions were in the offing.