R.I. glass company moves to Northbridge

NORTHBRIDGE — A Rhode Island-based glass manufacturing company is moving its operations to Douglas Road, and the company will be seeking a tax increment finance plan at a special town meeting next month.

Woonsocket Glass, 500 Pond St., Woonsocket, R.I., has purchased a building at 369 Douglas Road and hopes to open in May.

The business was founded in 1946 as Woonsocket Glass and Mirror and made its name supplying automotive, decorative and storefront glass. In 2013, the company became WGM Fabricators and today is known as Woonsocket Glass Fabricators. Woonsocket Glass makes glass for entrances, railings, walls, commercial glass doors, shower enclosures and mirrors.

The Board of Selectmen voted Monday night to set the special town meeting for 7 p.m. Feb. 24 at the Middle School.

Town Manager Theodore Kozak said the town had hoped to deal with this at the May annual town meeting, but needed to act on the TIF request prior to the company's opening, which will also help the company be eligible for additional state credits.

The Douglas Road building is 25,000 square feet and Woonsocket Glass plans to build an 8,800-square-foot addition. Woonsocket Glass plans to have 50 employees in Northbridge; it currently has 33.

The town is working on the details of the TIF, which is not for the entire building but only for the addition.

The company has offered to cover the cost of the special town meeting.

Chip Rogers, president of the custom glass fabrication company, said Woonsocket Glass outgrew its 12,500-square-foot Rhode Island home a several years ago.

"We discussed different alternatives — expansion, relocating — and we thought it was best to move here," Mr. Rogers said.

The Douglas Road site is 15 miles from Pond Street, a short trip up Route 146 north.