Property in the 4700 block of Progress Drive in Columbus will be designated as an Economic Revitalization Area (ERA) after action taken Tuesday night by the Columbus City Council.

The action was requested by officials with Shively Bros. According to documentation provided to the city, the company is a “precision tooling preset organization servicing the engine manufacturing industry.” Representatives with Shively Bros. told council members that they have found a 6,000 square-foot facility, on 1.4 acres, at 4780 Progress Drive that the company is in the process of obtaining in order to support its business with Cummins. Company officials told the council that once the ERA designation was applied to this property, they would apply for tax abatements to help cover the expense of leasing the property and purchasing the needed equipment.

Company officials say that work at the site won’t begin until after the delivery of machinery coming in from Germany in the middle of 2018. Once that is in place, they say that the Columbus location is expected to begin with nine employees and increase to approximately 20 within one year. In documents presented to the city, Shively Bros. says that their company is employee-owned, meaning that on top of wages and insurance benefits, employees are also eligible for bonuses.

The council approved the request to make the property an ERA on a unanimous vote of 7-to-0.