Representatives from SPS Technologies walked area residents through their plans for a smaller, quieter, and safer aerospace fasteners facility at 301 Highland Avenue in Jenkintown, the site of a massive fire in February which took days to extinguish completely.
Dubbed “Jenk 2.0”, the new facility’s footprint will be 30 percent smaller—and one story shorter—than the original building, which stood for over a century. According to current plans, the front facade will be further from the roadway and include bricks from the original plant among other “nods to the past,” SPS Vice President Dan Geer said during the September 25 meeting in the Abington School District Middle School Little Theater.
“We’re shrinking the perimeter all the way around. The goal is to build a manufacturing plant that doesn’t look like a manufacturing plant. We want to be very cognizant of being a part of this community,” Geer said. “We’ve engaged an architecture firm to see what the building might look like. We’re going to build a state-of-the-art facility. We want people to come from all over the world to tour this plant because nothing like it exists anywhere else. It’s going to be the safest plants that we can build. We’re not going to cut corners or spare any expenses.”
Geer added that the building will not have smokestacks and will be LEED-certified, replete with solar panels built and installed by Berkshire Energy. He also noted that SPS manufactures more than 700 parts “that no one else can make.”
“I’m convinced that this facility can be rebuilt safely. It will be built to code. That is not an option. SPS wants to build to our current code,” Abington commissioner Matt Vahey said. “This company has the financial motivation to get this done as quickly as possible.”
“They’re critical to American safety and our economy, and we should be proud to have them in our backyard. This is a great company to have in our community. They have open to every one of our requests,” Vahey said, noting that since SPS owns the land, they have the right to sell to any entity they choose.
“Let’s say they don’t rebuild. What happens next? We don’t have control over what they decide to do with the property they own,” Vahey said.
SPS is hoping to begin production at the new facility by sometime in 2028, with construction expected to begin in early 2026. In the interim, SPS signed a lease in May for a temporary site in Langhorn that has been nicknamed “Jenk 1.5”. Roughly 20 percent of the original machinery was able to be salvaged, and SPS has begun limited manufacturing operations there.
“We’d like to be here for another 100 years,” Geer said, adding that the new facility will also be home to a “really nice museum with things from the 1920s through the 1950s. We don’t want to forget our past.”
“There’s been a lot of concerns about our chemicals. We’re doing this the right way. Everything that was taken off the site has been categorized and handled appropriately. They did a great job,” David Dugan, SPS’ head of community relations, said. “Speed is important to us, but we’re going to build to codes, and we’re going to do things the right way.”
Local residents raised questions regarding future detours, noise, and employment.
“Highland is a really important road. I really want SPS to use what is readily available and not close off the neighborhood,” one resident said. “We were really patient, and I’m not sure that everyone is going to be that patient again. It’s a safety issue.”
A tongue-in-cheek request for SPS to donate their parking lot was met with laughs and a round of applause. Krystn Kuckelman of the Glenside Civic Assocation brought up the possibility for large trees to fill previously used areas of the property.
Geer assured the audience that SPS “will be bringing in local tradespeople. We’re not going to bring in people from across the country.”
The presentation began by thanking the 400-plus first responders who put themselves in harm’s way following the explosion.
“We know with 100% certainty it was not a chemical fire. We know the explosion originated in the compressed air system. The ATF and FBI have since said there was no foul play. We’re still exploring why the compressed air system exploded,” Geer said.
Concerned residents are still able to ask questions through SPS’ website, which Dugan said he personally handles. More to come.
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