Two companies plan to expand their Fort Wayne, Indiana, manufacturing centers, creating 52 new jobs in northeast Indiana.

Homegrown-Hoosier company American Sealants, a family-owned sealant and adhesive manufacturer and adhesive packaging provider, will invest $3.53 million to build and equip a new 60,000 square-foot facility on five acres of land in Fort Wayne. Currently operating out of a 22,000 square-foot building in Fort Wayne, the new facility will house additional mixers and packaging equipment for RTV silicones and adhesives as well as dieletric greases.

Construction is expected to begin this summer, with the facility slated to be fully operational in 2016. Serving customers locally and throughout the world, including brands such as GE, Whirlpool, Red Devil and Polar King International, American Sealants plans to create 10 new jobs by 2017. It will begin hiring additional maintenance workers, machine operators and general production associates this April.

Aluminum castings producer Ward Corporation will invest $6.2 million to expand operations at the company’s 300,000 square-foot Fort Wayne foundry, adding an additional 15,000 square-foot casting area to the two-acre campus, which includes three buildings originally constructed in the 1890s.

With its growth, the 50-year-old company will produce an intake manifold for Cummins in Columbus, supplying an air and fuel mixture to cylinders in the company’s V8 diesel engine. Installing furnaces, molding machines and CNCs, Ward expects the new casting area to be operational by the end of the year, with expectations to grow company revenues by 15 percent. Doubling its sales since 2009, Ward Corporation has already begun hiring to expand its workforce of 215 Hoosiers, with plans to create up to 42 new jobs by 2017.

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered American Sealants, Inc. up to $90,000 in conditional tax credits based on the company's job creation plans. Ward Corporation was offered up to $175,000 in conditional tax credits and up to $100,000 in training grants based on the company’s job creation plans. These incentives are performance-based, meaning until Hoosiers are hired, the company is not eligible to claim incentives. The city of Fort Wayne approved additional incentives for American Sealants and Ward Corporation at the request of Greater Fort Wayne, Inc.

“Indiana is a state of builders,” said Eric Doden, President of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. “Companies like American Sealants and Ward Corporation help keep water flowing into our homes and build the products that fuel our engines. They play a critical role in advancing not just their supply chains, but advancing our Indiana economy."