WINDHAM – Tube Hollows International, a Maine-based manufacturing company spun off from Dearborn Precision in Fryeburg, has announced its plans to move to North Windham after recently closing on a property off Enterprise Drive.

According to general manager David Morse, Tube Hollows manufactures metal tubes used in medical procedures and other applications. Formed when Dearborn Precision was sold last August to Britain-based Hunting PLC, the company has decided to move out of the Fryeburg area and is retrofitting the former Lavalley Lumber Co. warehouse and showroom.

According to company officials, the move will bring 30 jobs to the area. Most of the employees of Tube Hollows’ operation in Fryeburg are expected to make the transfer, but Morse said he will also hire locally for high-tech positions, including machine operators, deep-hole drilling specialists, mechanical engineers and maintenance staff.

Tube Hollows makes precision metal tubing also for customers in the oil and gas industry and automotive industry, Morse said. The company, he said, specializes in providing the raw tubes to other companies that use them to create final products for numerous applications, including medical needles and stints.

“‘Tube hollow’ is a trade term in our industry. It’s basically the raw material. So the name came out of that,” Morse said of the company that was founded by former Dearborn owners and employees last August.

Morse, who is also acting as project manager for the retrofitting of the 50,000-square-foot building, is excited to move the company to North Windham to tap into the greater Portland labor market.

“What attracted me to this area was that it is closer to the greater Portland area,” Morse said. “Our facility in Fryeburg is too small. We considered staying in Fryeburg but we felt Windham was a nice move, and we didn’t want to get down into Portland. It didn’t have anything to do with tax rate, more to do with geographical location. A fair amount of our employees are on the Bridgton side of Fryeburg, so their commute is roughly the same.”

Morse said the company received no incentives to move to the site, which sits off Route 302 in the reclaimed R.J. Grondin gravel pit beside another large metal building, Genest Landscape & Masonry.

Local business leaders are excited about the relocation.

“To go from a vacant building and no jobs to a renovated building with about 30 jobs coming to town, 30 jobs is a good win for Windham. It resonates confidence,” said Windham Economic Development Corp. member and commercial broker Larry Eliason, who worked to sell the property on behalf of Lavalley.

Eliason said high-tech manufacturing is a sector of the economy the retail-driven town has long been aiming to lure.

“We work hard to attract and retain businesses and this happened to be a property that was attractive to a manufacturer, close enough to the Portland markets, and a good workforce in this area is what helped attract him there,” Eliason said.

Windham’s economic development director, Tom Bartell, is encouraged to see another manufacturer coming to town, following the announcement this spring that Maine Standards and its 50 employees would be leaving North Windham for Cumberland within a year.

“When I visited with them [in Fryeburg], I was very impressed with their precision machining and it looked like a great operation, very well-run and up to date, and we’re really looking forward to having them start here in Windham,” Bartell said. “They wanted to be in this area, in the labor market, and the availability of the right kind of space that they could renovate to fit their needs was key to them.”

Morse, who said he wants the renovated building to reflect the company’s desire to be “world leaders in the markets we serve,” is spending an undisclosed sum to remake the building’s exterior and interior, so, as Eliason said, “you won’t even recognize this building once they’re done.”

The building requires a renovation since it once housed lumber and much of it wasn’t insulated or climate-controlled. Two large doors in the metal building allowed one-way truck traffic for Lavalley customers hauling lumber. Morse said the plan is to enclose and insulate the building and roof to make for a comfortable working environment. The significant investment, Morse said, should send a signal that Tube Hollows is here to stay.

“We really want to present ourselves as industry leaders. We want to have a particular appearance to it. We want our employees to enjoy coming to work. We want to invest in them as well as the markets we serve. Therefore, we’re going to put a new face on the building,” Morse said. “We’re investing a fair amount of money in that, which I think will demonstrate we want to be here for the long-haul.

“This isn’t just a flash in the pan. We have strong markets. We know what we’re doing. We are very skilled at what we do and we expect to grow the business. It is our intention to build a healthy, growing company, and it’ll be pretty apparent when we retrofit the building.”

Butts Commercial Brokers agent Larry Eliason, left, and David Morse, general manager for Tube Hollows International, announced recently that the precision drilling manufacturer is moving its operation from Fryeburg to North Windham after completing a renovation of the former Lavalley Lumber Co. building, seen in background. (Staff photo by John Balentine)