Tom Henricksen of Chatham, president of Ceramco Inc., stands Tuesday outside one of the four buildings at 209 Hobbs St. in Conway Village. The 4.4-acre site has a total of four buildings totling 46,000 feet in Conway’s Industrial Zone. (TOM EASTMAN PHOTO)
An aerial shot of the four-building complex on the shores of Pequawket Pond in the Industrial Zone of Conway on Hobbs Street. (COURTESY SVN/MASIELLO GROUP)
The loading dock of one of the buildings at 209 Hobbs St. that were recently purchased by Ceramco, seen Tuesday. (TOM EASTMAN PHOTO)
The sign for the Ceramco, Inc. building on East Main Street stands along the road in Center Conway. (RACHEL SHARPLES PHOTO)
Tom Henricksen of Chatham, president of Ceramco Inc., stands Tuesday outside one of the four buildings at 209 Hobbs St. in Conway Village. The 4.4-acre site has a total of four buildings totling 46,000 feet in Conway’s Industrial Zone. (TOM EASTMAN PHOTO)
An aerial shot of the four-building complex on the shores of Pequawket Pond in the Industrial Zone of Conway on Hobbs Street. (COURTESY SVN/MASIELLO GROUP)
The loading dock of one of the buildings at 209 Hobbs St. that were recently purchased by Ceramco, seen Tuesday. (TOM EASTMAN PHOTO)
The sign for the Ceramco, Inc. building on East Main Street stands along the road in Center Conway. (RACHEL SHARPLES PHOTO)
CONWAY — A complex of four vacant industrial buildings at 209 Hobbs St. in Conway Village has been purchased by Tom Henriksen, president of Ceramco Inc., for $910,000.
The 4.4-acre property was sold June 30 by Carroll County Leasing's Makena Hergert of New Castle, widow of late Chick Lumber owner Tom Hergert. Hergert had bought the property in 2002 from O. Lee Gregory for $375,000, according to Conway Assessing Clerk Corie Hilton. Gregory had bought it from the parent company of J.V. Components in 1987 for $430,000 but that one of the buildings was damaged by heavy snowload in 1999 and that is believed to b=have accounted for the lower sales price in 2002..
Henriksen, 40, of Chatham, a 2005 graduate in materials science and engineering of Drexel University, said Tuesday that after extensive renovations to the complex, he expects to move most, if not all, of his company’s manufacturing operations from the 10,350-square-foot plant located at 1467 East Main St. in Center Conway.
Those extensive renovations could take three to five years, Henriksen said.
“This gives us a lot more room to grow,” said Henriksen, noting that the four-building former Chick Lumber and J.V. Components complex totals 46,000 square feet.
Ceramco makes high-precision, low-pressure, injection-molded ceramic components from aluminum oxide, mullite and yttrium-stabilized Zirconium oxide. These are sold to the electronics, instrumentation, aerospace and homeland security industries.
The company, which employs 30 people, was started by Henriksen's late father, Dr. Anders Henriksen, in 1982. The Center Conway plant dates back to 1997.
According to the company website, Dr. Henriksen immigrated in 1972 from Denmark to Boston, where he earned his doctorate of science in ceramic science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He remained at MIT until 1980, performing work in thermal analysis and hydrothermal processing of ultra-pure oxides.
In 1982, Dr. Henriksen moved to Chatham and began Chatham Technology, a consulting firm. Later that year he founded Ceramco, with its focus the manufacture of ceramic components using powder metallurgy and near-net shaping. Following Anders' passing in 2006, Tom Henriksen assumed control. The company remains family-owned and operated.
Its customers are worldwide, with annual sales of $3 million.
The Hobbs Street complex originally was listed for $1.095 million, but Greydon Turner of Pinkham Realty, who represented Henriksen, said they identified $185,000 in needed improvements that brought the price down.
Representing the Hergert Trust in the sale was Chris Pascucci, managing director of SVN/The Masiello Group of Bedford.
Pascucci said the property was on the market for two years.
“We had a lot of lookers — had this been in Manchester, we would have had sold it 20 times over," he said.
"It’s a great building, but you have to understand that with Conway there are challenges for manufacturing with finding a workforce," he said.
He noted the buildings come with "a vast amount of power, and there are high ceilings with loading docks so it will suit Ceramco’s needs well," he said in a July 1 interview.
Chick's Lumber now has a location at the former Sears store in Redstone as well as a distribution center in Conway and a home center on Route 16 in North Conway.
The Hobbs Street property also is on the shore of Pequawket Pond, where Henriksen said he would like to build a dock for employees’ use should they want to go kayaking or set up picnic tables for lunch breaks.
“It’s a beautiful setting,” he said.
It is located just around the corner from Tuckerman Brewing Co. and next-door to Hurteau Plumbing and Painting and American Air Systems in the once-thriving Conway Industrial Park of the 1970s and early '80s.
It is just down the street from Conway Selectman Carl Thibodeau’s Thibodeau Business Complex, once home to Carroll Reed's distribution center and later Yield House. Thibodeau told the Sun on Tuesday that he worked at J.V. Components from 1971-74.
Thibodeau said in its heyday, J.V. Components "was really a going concern. They ran 24/7 and employed maybe 200 people or close to it. They were an injection-molding company that made injection-molded plastic shoe soles.”
He said the plant also had a branch in Lewiston, Maine. Thibodeau said a number of factors doomed the company, including a lack of help (a problem still rampant today) and competition from overseas.
Don Newton of Conway, who worked 17 years for J.V. Components, concurred, noting, "At our peak we were making approximately 80,000 pair of pliable PVC (polyvinylchloride) shoe soles a week."
Told that Pinkham Realty got a few bites from a developer exploring an affordable housing for the site, Thibodeau said the use Henriksen has in mind makes better sense as the complex is located in the Industrial District and that it ought to suit Ceramco’s and the town’s business development needs perfectly.
“Once something goes out of industrial use, it’s hard to put it back,” said Thibodeau, adding, “Tom Henriksen, like his father, is a brilliant man, and he runs a great operation there in Center Conway. It makes for a good use for that property.”
Unlike the Industrial Zone on East Conway Road, Hobbs Street is served by municipal sewer and water, another important asset for Ceramco.
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Your comment has been submitted.
There was a problem reporting this.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.
Click Below To Read Today's Replica Edition!
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Would you like to receive a link to the Conway Daily Sun online eEdition and preview the top stories? Signup today!
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.
Get the latest news first, with up to the minute coverage of local events. Signup Today!
Would you like to receive a link to the Berlin Sun online eEdition and preview the top stories? Signup today!
Get the latest news first, with up to the minute coverage of local events. Signup Today!
Would you like to receive a link to the Conway Daily Sun online eEdition and preview the top stories? Signup today!
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Invalid password or account does not exist
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account.
Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
A receipt was sent to your email.