Wilcox Industries eyes 12-story expansion called ‘gem of Newington’

Photo courtesy of Wilcox Industries

Wilcox Industries, a military and law enforcement tactical equipment developer and manufacturer, is planning a major addition to its headquarters that would house partner businesses in the electrooptics industry.

Company founder and chief executive Jim Teetzel said Wilcox is exploring constructing a 12-story building that would connect to its current five-story facility by a new covered bridge. If proposed and later approved by the town, Teetzel hopes to break ground on the project by the third quarter of next fiscal year.

Wilcox Industries designs, engineers and builds tactical equipment for the U.S. military, law enforcement and first responders. The company has grown exponentially since receiving its first patent for a handgun laser aiming device in 1993.

“It’s just the continued progression of the growth of the company. More recently, I’d say it’s (because of) the current events of global affairs. Technology is evolving, and we’re evolving with it,” Teetzel stated in an interview.

The new building would include a first-floor common area, a cafeteria, a restaurant open to the public and used for private events, a two-level parking garage with hundreds of spaces, offices and light manufacturing space. Wilcox would occupy between two and four of the floors of the new building, and a manufacturing trade school could be set up on-site, according to Teetzel.

The Newington Planning Board hosted Teetzel for a preliminary consultation on the project on Monday, April 13. An official proposal has not yet been filed with the town.

“What’s happened over the last few years is we’ve developed some strategic partners that, candidly, want to get out of Massachusetts, and they’re looking to move into New Hampshire for all the obvious reasons of their taxes and burdens that they have running their businesses,” Teetzel said at the public meeting.

Teetzel told the Planning Board that high-tech companies with similar missions and contracts would be sought to join the Wilcox campus if the addition is built.

Different floors of the building would either be leased or sold to tenants. Each floor would span 30,000 square feet, totaling 360,000 square feet.

“You could almost look at this as a defense consortium of companies that are an integral part of the supply chain for the U.S. government,” Teetzel said at the Planning Board meeting.

The company did not provide a cost estimate for the possible project. Teetzel did not disclose the names of possible future tenants, nor did he share renderings of the potential addition with a reporter.

Teetzel’s vision garnered high praise from members of the Planning Board.

“Mr. Teetzel, if you build that, it will be the gem of Newington,” said Board of Selectmen chairperson Bob Blonigen, the body’s Planning Board representative, at the meeting.

“It’s a beautiful facility, from what I can see here,” added Planning Board chairperson Denis Hebert.

Wilcox has partnered with Durham architect Nick Isaak and PROCON, a Hooksett construction firm, on the project.