$7.4M Deal Boosts Pump Builder

An industrial pump manufacturer has finished moving its 75 employees into the former Radiall factory buildings in Fair Haven — and now has $7.4 million to grow its local business more.

That company is Industrial Flow Solutions (IFS), a subsidiary of a Chicago-based business that purchased the former Radiall properties at 90 and 104 John W. Murphy Dr. last January for $3.2 million.

According to the city land records database, on Dec. 18, IFS Real Estate LLC sold those two properties for $7.4 million to 90/104 John Murphy Drive LLC. The new owner is a holding company controlled by Salvatore Campofranco of the New Canaan-based Luzern Associates.

During a recent phone interview with the Independent and in an email press release sent out last Wednesday, IFS President John Wilson described the land transaction as a standard ​“sale-leaseback.”

IFS sold its ownership of the Fair Haven properties to the commercial real estate investment firm. Then it signed an ​“extremely long-term lease” that allows the company to stay in those buildings for the foreseeable future. (Wilson declined to say exactly how long the lease is for, citing the need to talk further with Campofranco before going public with that number.)

“The main thing as I look at it, is that it’s a chance for us to continue to fuel our growth plans,” Wilson said about the sale-leaseback. ​“It gives us increased flexibility to make the additional investments we want to make in people, technology, and tooling equipment.”

“It’s a further reinforcement of our investment in New Haven,” he continued. ​“We’ve been happy being here.”

Wilson said that, over the course of the past year, IFS has followed through on its plans to move its 75 employees from former offices in Old Saybrook, Monroe, and Prospect into the 65,000 square-foot New Haven factory buildings on the eastern banks of the Mill River.

In those New Haven buildings, IFS’s employees design, test, develop, and assemble industrial-use pumps.

“Since relocating here, we have grown our in-house testing capabilities, built a new flow lab to strengthen our competitive position in the commercial, municipal, and industrial sectors, and also fully integrated our OverWatch direct in-line pumping technology,” Wilson is quoted as saying in the press release.

In previous interviews, Wilson has described the pumps built by IFS as being used for such services as disposing of chicken waste on poultry farms, helping utility companies keep transformer bolts dry, and pumping out hot, corrosive waste waters and liquids for everything from pharmaceutical companies to microbreweries.

City Deputy Economic Development Administrator Steve Fontana said that sale-leaseback arrangements as ​“a fairly common tool that companies often use to free up capital for further investment and growth.”

He praised IFS for moving to New Haven, creating ​“quality jobs” in Fair Haven, upgrading their plant and equipment, and partnering with the city on maintaining the nearby Mill River Trail.

“They’re a big net positive for the city and Fair Haven in particular, and we look forward to working with them on any future expansion that they might contemplate,” he wrote by email.

Neighbors: IFS Committed To Community

Mill River Trail lead organizer J.R. Logan (pictured) and United Way of Greater New Haven Communications Manager Kate Darlin both told the Independent that IFS has been a welcome addition to the neighborhood neighbor since moving to Fair Haven last year.

“Industrial Flow Solutions has demonstrated that they value the Mill River Trail because it connects employees and the neighborhood through shared enjoyment of the outdoors,” Logan told the Independent in a written message.

“When it was realized there was a bottleneck too tight for trail construction, Industrial Flow Solutions worked with the New Haven Innovation Collective and City of New Haven to move their fence line to accommodate the trail construction. I look forward to maintaining, cleaning and improving the Mill River Trail this summer with support of volunteers and Industrial Flow Solutions staff.”

Darlin said that United Way, which is located nearby at 370 James St., worked with IFS volunteers last October on a food pantry in Fair Haven. She said IFS also participated in United Way’s annual toy drive in December, donating toys and coasts for local children three years old and younger.

Darlin said that her colleague Jessica Teta, United Way’s director of development, worked closely with IFS, and that Teta described the industrial company as ​“committed to the region and to engaging in very real ways with the local community.”

Wilson also told the Independent that IFS has exceeded its planned $385,000 investment in capital repairs and upgrades to the Murphy Drive factory buildings.

The company promised the city it would make such improvements last year during an aldermanic committee hearing about the city’s bid to relinquish its right to take back an undeveloped piece of property in exchange for IFS’s investment.

An IFS representative also said during that meeting that the industrial pump manufacturer would hire at least 14 new employees in the first few years after moving into Fair Haven.

Wilson told the Independent that IFS has ​“already added a number of key roles” to its business since relocating. He didn’t have an exact count of how many new jobs have been added since last year. He said IFS is still committed to meeting those new hiring goals, and to hiring locally. He said a number of New Haveners already work for the company — including himself.

“It’s been a great facility,” he said. ​“Everything we planned for it, the space expansion, being able to have everybody under one roof,” he said paid off. ​“Everything with the city and the neighbors, it’s been great.”