Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. High 68F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..
Some passing clouds. Low 56F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Vice President of Human Resources for Omnis Building Technologies Mathew Hart speaks during Tuesday’s Bluefield Rotary Club meeting.
Vice President of Human Resources for Omnis Building Technologies Mathew Hart speaks during Tuesday’s Bluefield Rotary Club meeting.
BLUEFIELD — A manufacturer bringing jobs into southern West Virginia along with technology creating new and affordable housing could start hiring people by the first part of 2023.
Mathew Hart, vice president of human resources for Omnis Building Technologies, spoke Tuesday about the manufacturing plant being constructed near Exit 1 off Interstate 77. Back in March, Gov. Jim Justice helped break ground on a $40 million,150,000-square-foot facility located near the Bluefield Area Transit headquarters on John Nash Boulevard.
Meeting with the Bluefield W.Va. Rotary Club at the Clover Club in downtown Bluefield, Hart recalled how he was a vice president of human relations for the retailer Gabe’s when he met an acquaintance, Omnis BuildingTechnologies President Jonathan Hodson.
“What I’m most excited about, I wanted to present to you guys the vision of why I made the transition I did over to Omnis from Gabe’s. Don’t get me wrong, Gabe’s is a great company. I continue to shop there. They’re great people. But for me, here about a year ago, I had a little bit of a call it a work-faith crisis if you will,” Hart said. “Growing up in retail, you’re fighting for every dollar, fighting for every point of gross margin, fighting for everything that you can get. I had a moment of contemplation where I thought there’s got to be more to life than this, and we served in our church. There’s a whole gospel side that I believe in that I won’t get into today. “
“But from a work perspective, I was spending eight to 10 to 12 hours a day in a job that I love doing,” he said. “I love doing HR, but in an industry that I’m not really sure where it’s headed.”
Hart said he spoke with Hodson about what the Omnis company was doing, and learned about its concept of building affordable housing “at half the cost of what stick-built current housing provides, being a being able to do it in a rapid manner; right now, everything’s on back order, everything you can’t get, and supply chain is out of control. Six, eight, ten months still.”
The company’s concept also offered the prospect of being able to help solve two of the world’s housing crisis, he said. The first is affordability.
“Number two, the homeless issues that we face and those people and families who don’t have a place to live,” Hart stated. “This is something that is a fundamental right for everybody. A fundamental right. You shouldn’t have to think about where you’re going to sleep tonight. So to me, as I was conversing with Jonathan and he was sharing the vision of what they have created, it popped in my mind because I was sharing with him, ‘Hey, I’m in HR and this is what I do, I work for Gabe’s’ and he said, “You know, I need an HR guy.’ and I said, ‘Well, I need a new job.’”
Hart went into detail about Omnis Building Technologies and the homes it will be creating.
“For those who don’t understand what we’re doing or haven’t had a chance to hear about Omnis, the technology we have perfected is called a composite insulated building,” Hart said. “Essentially, it’s a concrete exterior around a polystyrene interior. The cement mix that we use eight times stronger than normal concrete cement mix.”
He compared the system, for what he said was lack of a better comparison, to Lego blocks. Its concrete will use coal byproducts.
“It’s a 4 (feet) by 10 (feet) sheet which can be clipped together, and will allow people to build at 1,500 square foot home in eight to 24 hours,” Hart said. “It’s been hurricane tested. It’s been tornado tested. It’s been fire tested. It’s a magnificent product.”
Hart also spoke about why Bluefield was chosen as the Omnis facility’s site. When Jonathan Hodson and his father, Simon, were seeking a location, “Bluefield just made sense.”
“There’s access to rail, there’s access to a ton of coal and a lot of stuff we will be doing use byproducts of the coal industry. It provided us an opportunity to look at an area of West Virginia that is rich in people as far as the values, the kind of people you want to be your neighbor,” Hart stated.
Hiring could begin by the first part of 2023, Hart said. The company expects to hire between 210 to 150 people by 2025. Among the challenges will be finding employees. After certification, starting salaries would be $30 an hour.
The people needed will range from engineering backgrounds, human resources, accounting, and “the whole gamut of running a business,” he said.
“It will be a production plant. It will be a production facility where we will build the units for the homes coming out of this facility here,” Hart said. “The plan right now is to engage all of the local technical colleges to provide training programs to prepare high school graduates, college-age entry and those who have just have a general contracting industry, any of the engineering sciences to be able to provide well-paying positions for those individuals.”
“The plant right now is scheduled to begin operations sometime in the May to June (2023) time period,” Hart said. “If we could get the rain to hold off a little while, that would certainly help compacting the site over there. That’s the general timeline that we’re looking at right now and we’re super excited for the community and we’re super excited to be working with all the partners that we’ve had.”
Omnis plans to work with Bluefield State University, the Mercer County Technical Education Center, Southwest Virginia Community College and other local institutions.
“We have a lot of great partners in this area to help build this training certification program and help get people trained, ready come in and add back into the community,” Hart said. “We’re excited about that.”
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Saturday, 11 a.m., at Tynes Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church. Burial at Hogan and Charleton Cemetery in Rocky Gap, Va.
Saturday, 3 p.m., memorial service at the Shields Chapel Baptist Church in Bluefield.
Saturday, 7 p.m., at Highland Funeral Home in Bland, Va.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.
Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox.
First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.