Lift Inc. plans new facility in Berks County

Lancaster County-based Lift Inc. is building a new facility in Berks County to house its Bernville regional office and a company it bought in 2012.

The 68,000-square-foot building will be located along Route 61 near Leesport in Ontelaunee Township. That's just a block from the current Cherry Street location of the former Reading Kubota, which Lift acquired in 2012 and renamed Reading Tractor & Equipment.

“Both the Bernville facility for Lift and Reading Tractor & Equipment’s current building will close with the opening of this new facility,” said Kirk Sears, co-owner and vice president of Lift. “This will not necessarily create new jobs in the area, but it will make our business run more efficiently.”

Sears said the building will have two faces, one for Reading Tractor and the other for Lift, with the businesses sharing certain common areas like lunch rooms, training and conference rooms, shop areas, loading space and pressure washing bays.

Lift Inc.’s portion of the building will serve as a material handling and distribution center for its lift trucks, aerial lift equipment and scissor and boom lift rentals. In addition, there will be a sales and service center for brands that include Crown, Toyota, JLG and Genie.

The other section will be for Reading Tractor’s Bobcat and Kubota products, CAM Superline Trailers, Exmark commercial mowers, Honda power equipment and Stihl power tools.

Lift hired Speedwell Construction Inc., a Lancaster County commercial construction company, as general contractor for the multimillion-dollar building. Construction began last fall, and the move is expected to happen in September.

Lift Inc. also is looking to sell or lease land near the new home for commercial development. Sears said that when Lift acquired Reading Kubota, it also bought 14 acres of property on Route 61 in Leesport and plans to sell or lease the additional acreage for commercial use. LMS Commercial Real Estate of Lancaster is marketing the land.

The LMS website lists 4.3 acres of land on Pottsville Pike, Ontelaunee Township, where Lift Inc. is building the new facility. The pad site is listed for $1.2 million and is being marketed for retail or office space with public water and sewer.

Lift is owned by Sears and Don Herman. The business has been in operation since 1973, and Sears has been an owner the last 12 years. It has other full-service regional offices in Manheim, Mechanicsburg, Williamsport and Ephrata.

Source: Central Penn Business Journal