SALISBURY, Md.- Chesapeake Shipbuilding in Salisbury will expand their facilities to meet the demands of some upcoming projects.
“So we have approval from the city and county to move forward with our first proposed site plan. So we have a couple companies working right now to finalize the design of the first phase of that which is a new office building,” said Steve McGee, president of Chesapeake Shipbuilding. “Phase one will be building a new office building, then relocating a production shed to turn it into a paint shop also what is currently our administrative spaces we will remove those, put them in an office building and all of that square footage will be repurposed for trade shops".
One of those upcoming projects is the construction of a fleet of 12 ships for American Cruise Lines. To get the job done, McGee has had to roughly double his workforce.
“Our job growth projections were on track we are adding a lot of new hires,” said McGee. "We have made great gains hiring in the local area especially and we're starting to see application from outside our area".
President of the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce, Bill Chambers, is excited for the growth this expansion will add to the Salisbury and Wicomico County economy.
"They're gonna put roots down in our community. Their children are going to go to our schools. They are going to buy our product here in Wicomico and Salisbury so its win win win on four levels for the city and the county," said Chambers.
McGee says he had no idea this scale of expansion would be under his watch when he started at Chesapeake Shipbuilding.
“Years ago... not to this degree. Not to what we’re going to be doing," said McGee. “We’re going to max out our capacities for sure once we get through the next 18 to 24 month especially”.
McGee hopes to begin construction on the fleet of 12 ships in the coming months.