MONROE – Ventower Industries LLC will begin hiring by year’s end for a Port of Monroe factory that will make towers for industrial-sized wind generators and have about 150 employees by early 2012, company officials said Wednesday.

The privately owned start-up company will begin with about 50 employees early next year after opening its $22 million factory and gradually increasing production and employment, said Gregory Adanin, Ventower president and chief executive.

Mr. Adanin, Ventower Chairman James Viciana, and others gathered at the Port of Monroe Wednesday for a company progress report.
U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D., Dearborn) noted that Ventower recently received a $2.3 million grant and $1.2 million loan in clean-energy stimulus funding, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that he supported.

Federal stimulus funding has successfully created jobs with companies such as Ventower, which will be a leader in transforming industry in Michigan, Mr. Dingell said Wednesday.

Read more at the Toledo Blade.