KriStar eyes second precast plant, in tandem with Northgate Ready Mix

Sources: KriStar Enterprises Inc., Santa Rosa, Calif.; CP staff

Stormwater management products specialist KriStar plans a February 2013 production start at a Windsor, Calif., site along Highway 101—about 30 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Designed as a Caltrans Section 51 Certified Facility, it will more than double the company’s capacity for structural precast components collecting, filtering and treating runoff.

KriStar’s second Sonoma County plant is rising adjacent to independent operator Northgate Ready Mix, and near a growing industrial hub in Windsor. “We are excited to be bringing more manufacturing into this area,” says KriStar CEO Doug Allard. “This location once housed a large, thriving business, Standard Industrial, founded in the 1940s. It’s a 90-acre site, with 300,000 square feet under roof, and it was empty a long time. We will occupy 25,000 square feet and three acres outdoors, continuing the revitalization of this site.”

The state is building much-needed roads, he adds, “and by supplying materials for [them], this plant will be another way that those projects translate into California jobs. We’ll be hiring new employees, who will be on staff by January.”

KriStar’s Windsor plant stands to be a textbook example of how green manufacturing can also be economically smart business, Allard affirms. The precast production line will be supplied by neighbor Northgate Ready Mix, which sources aggregate from the solar-powered Mark West Quarry. Principals in the ready mixed business include Mark West’s Santa Rosa-based owner BoDean Co.

Recently deployed reclaimer equipment will enable Northgate to reuse some recycled aggregate and process water in KriStar orders. Recycled material content, coupled with aggregate from a facility running on renewable, carbon-free power, will position KriStar products favorably in Caltrans and local agency specs.