Courtesy Munter Enterprises
By Rod Bacon
Munter Enterprises, Inc. is in various stages of adding three new buildings to the W.J. Grande Industrial Park in Saratoga Springs.
According to Vice President Mike Munter, they have two projects underway on Skyward Drive.
They recently received approval from the Saratoga County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) for a 35,000-square-foot facility for Ambrave Corp., a company that designs and manufactures advanced tactical gear for military special operations forces and law enforcement under the brand Direct Action and for outdoor enthusiasts under the brand Helikon-Tex.
Headquartered in Poland, the company has manufacturing plants in Nowa Ruda, Swiebodzice and Nysa. Some products are manufactured in Vietnam, Taiwan, and China.
The company distributes its products worldwide, with their current facility in Malta being responsible for marketing in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Under the name Direct Action LLC it has been in Malta since 2018. Ambrave was established as an umbrella company last year.
According to CEO Konrad Gdowski, the company’s U.S. operations started in Ballston Spa in 2014. They doubled their space with the 2018 move to Malta and doubled it again in 2021.
“With the move to Saratoga we will triple our current space,” he said.
In Poland there are 300 people employed in manufacturing, research and development, distribution, marketing and administration.
Gdowski said the experience of working with Munter Enterprises has been a very positive one.
“I’ve known about them since 2014,” he said. “I talked with multiple builders for this project and I really enjoyed working with John and Mike.”
Munter said they plan to start construction on the $6.5 million building within the next few weeks with an estimated completion date of spring 2026.
The other project on Skyward Drive is a 120,000-square-foot spec building that is currently in front of the Saratoga Springs Planning Board. According to Munter, it is the last piece of vacant land on the east side of the industrial park.
“We are just in for approvals right now,” he said. “We’re trying to get that one approved so it’s ready to go if someone needs space of any kind. We’re not going ahead with construction until we know who is going in it.”
Both of these projects are on plots owned by Munter Enterprises.
Also in the industrial park, planning board approval has been obtained for a $2.5 million, 17,000-square-foot addition to a 50,000-square-foot warehouse owned by Slack Chemicals, a distributor of chemicals for a wide variety of industries. Munter said that construction will start as soon as a building permit is issued and will take four months.
Headquartered in Carthage, N.Y., with facilities in Castorland and Saratoga Springs, the company was founded in 1944. When Robert Sturtz purchased it in 1986, it had eight employees and three straight trucks. It averaged $3 million in sales and delivered within a 150-mile radius. Today, annual sales exceed $30 million, there are 95 employees, and the fleet has grown to well over 100 vehicles in its three locations.
“We have thirty-five power units — tractors, straight trucks and small bulk tankers,– and we have a fleet of over a hundred tankers and trailers in our three locations,” said Human Resources Manager Paul Pierce. “In the Saratoga Springs facility there are ten box trailers, twenty tankers, and about half-a-dozen power units. There are eighteen employees involved in prepping and packaging materials, receiving, and driving.”
Their customer base has expanded to include clients in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, West Virginia, Ohio, Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island.
Product lines include ice melters, caustics/acids, and solvents/alcohols; as well as chemicals for swimming pools; water and waste treatment; dairy, paper, industrial, plating, co-generation industrial, reagents, and food grade applications. The company also has mixing and blending capabilities.
Pierce said Munter has built all the additions to their facility as well as a new building opposite the main one. They were also the general contractor, working with Watertown, N.Y.-based MTL Design, Inc., on several additions to the company’s Castorland location.
“Our experience working with the Munters has been fantastic,” said Pierce. “We’ve been dealing with them for years and it’s been a great working relationship.”
Elsewhere, Munter Enterprises is starting construction in Greenwich on a 2,500-square-foot branch of the Hudson River Community Credit Union. The building will include a drive-thru and state-of-the-art Interactive Teller Machines (ITMs).
A unique aspect of the project, according to Munter, is that because of the Amish population in the area there will be a hitching post and water hydrant for horses in the parking lot.
Typically, Munter Enterprises does all the concrete work, steel erection, and envelope installation on its projects. They subcontract things like plumbing, electrical, and HVAC to a variety of local craftsmen.
They often partner with Paone Architecture, PC, of Saratoga Springs, for building design and Verity Engineering, D.P.C. of Troy for site design.
For further information on this company’s work go to munterenterprises.com.