Germantown's J.W. Speaker plans $44 million factory expansion with village financing help

A Germantown company that makes lights for motorcycles and other vehicles is proposing a $44 million expansion, with $2.7 million in village financing help.

J.W. Speaker Corp. plans to develop new buildings and expand its headquarters over several years, according to a village report. The expansion would bring around 100 additional jobs.

Speaker's expanded corporate campus would include:

A pair of new manufacturing and design facilities, to be developed in 2018, and totaling a $15 million investment.

A separate executive meeting facility and expansion of Speaker's headquarters, in 2019. Those projects would total around $10 million.

Additional expansion of the headquarters. That $19 million project would occur between 2023 and 2028, according to the company's long-range plans.

That new space would total around 160,000 square feet, said George Lehnerer, Speaker's chief financial officer.

Speaker's 163,000-square-foot building is at N120 W19434 Freistadt Road. The new buildings would be developed on 87 acres west of that facility.

Speaker also operates an 80,000-square-foot building nearby in the Germantown Industrial Park.

The company has around 400 employees and expects to add around 100 employees if the expansion occurs, Lehnerer said Monday.

Speaker's products include a motorcycle headlight, developed in 2016, that dynamically adapts to a bike's surroundings to control the lighting in corners and turns.

The company's customers include Harley-Davidson Inc. and snowmobile, ATV and motorcycle maker Polaris Industries Inc.

The village would help finance Speaker's corporate campus by spending $2.7 million on new sewers, water mains and a cash grant to the company, the proposal said.

Those funds would be repaid through the new buildings' property taxes by 2031, according to a village report.

Once those funds are repaid, the property taxes would go to the village's general fund, its school district and other local governments.

The new buildings planned by Speaker would have property values of approximately $26.8 million, according to a village estimate.

The Plan Commission is to review the financing proposal at a Wednesday meeting. It will need Village Board approval.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com, and followed on Twitter and Facebook.