Melrose Lands Warrior Boats Plant

MELROSE  (AP) - Melrose has lured a boat manufacturing plant to the central Minnesota town with an incentives agreement.

The city will make a tax-increment financing plan and a 10-year revolving loan available to Warrior Boats LLC. The boat company agrees to build a 10,000-square-foot building in Melrose and create at least five new jobs within two years.

In July, Melrose businessmen Chuck Barth, Joe Hellermann and Al Leinen purchased the Warrior Boats brand along with Dave Andersen, a professional walleye angler from Amery, Wis. Warrior Boats started making pontoons in the mid-1980s in Maple Lake and later became known for its high-end fiberglass fishing models. The operation went out of business more than a year ago.

A public hearing on the plan is scheduled Oct. 10.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)