William Soto Santiago, founder of the religious organization known as La Carpa, had been scheduled to attend Friday's announcement, but was in Chile and could not attend, Longley said, adding said Soto is likely to visit Ocala as the project progresses. 'In the face of a softening economy, this is exciting news,' he added. 'You look at the projects they're doing in Europe and Asia and it shows Marion County is a globally competitive location.' 'What's intriguing is you have a company like ASFI with a global customer base,' Tesch said. 'Welders, fabricators, draftsmen.'ДЄmong those attending Friday morning's announcement were Ocala Mayor Randy Ewers and Pete Tesch CEO and president of the EDC. 'These are all full-time jobs and they're skilled jobs,' he said. All of the new hires come from Marion County, he said. Longley said the move from Citrus to Marion allowed AFSI to boost its payroll from 19 employees to 62. 'Our plant was 87,000 square feet but it wasn't a usable 87,000 square feet.' 'We had no space and no labor pool in Citrus County,' Longley said. The company received grants of $115,000 for relocation and $15,000 for employee training from the city of Ocala's Economic Improvement Fund and Longley credited Mayor Randy Ewers of Ocala and the Ocala/Marion County Economic Development Corp.

The project is scheduled to be finished late 2008 or early 2009, Nee added.ДЄSFI moved to its new 100,000-square-foot Ocala location at Southwest 54th Court - formerly a Haverty's Furniture warehouse - from Crystal River. The project is in the final design and engineering phase now, with construction scheduled to begin in the first quarter of next year. Timothy Nee, vice president of architectural sales, added the structure will be hurricane-resistant. The building will cover some 10 acres, have capacity for 55,000 seats and cost between $15-20 million at completion, said Chris Longley, ASFI's vice president for business development. Officials with American Spaceframe Fabricators International announced an agreement to build a 400,000-square-foot worship and meeting center in Cayey, Puerto Rico for La Carpa, 'an international religious and peace organization.' OCALA - A company which opened its Ocala plant today did so with flair, when it announced it will build the largest tension- fabric framed structure in the world here.

William soto santiago la carpa